The obtention of high-titer antibodies of restricted heterogeneity against lysozyme methyl ester in rabbits vaccinated with Micrococcus lysodeikticus

Vaccination of rabbits with the Gram-positive bacterium Micrococcus lysodeikticus results in the production of antimicrococcus antibodies of restricted heterogeneity (Van Hoegaerden et al., 1975). Similarly, we observed that intravenous vaccination of rabbits with Micrococcus cells, partially covered with lysozyme methyl ester, induces the production of large amounts of antilysozyme methyl ester antibodies (up to 40 mg per millilitre of serum) of limited heterogeneity. Our results clearly demonstrate that rabbits, hyperimmunized for months with Micrococcus and yielding homogeneous antimicrococcus antibodies, were incapable of mounting any antilysozyme methyl ester antibody response, when vaccinated with free Micrococcus cells and lysozyme methyl ester bound to Micrococcus. In rabbits, immunized from the beginning with free Micrococcus cells and lysozyme methyl ester bound to Micrococcus, the elicited immune response showed a restricted heterogeneity and was predominantly directed at Micrococcus antigenic epitopes. However, those rabbits were equally capable of producing later a high titer of antilysozyme methyl ester antibodies of limited heterogeneity and clonal dominance, under conditions of mixed vaccination with a low free Micrococcus dose and progressively increasing lysozyme methyl ester doses.     

The genome of Schistosoma mansoni: isolation of DNA, its size, bases and repetitive sequences

DNA has been prepared from adults and cercariae of Schistosoma mansoni utilizing a technique that involves centrifugation through cesium chloride. The DNA isolated from S. mansoni adults and that isolated from cercariae were found to be indistinguishable in all analyses. No modified bases were detected by chromatography or comparative endonuclease restriction. Cot analysis demonstrated that the haploid genome of S. mansoni is 0.26 pg (2.7 X 10(8) base pairs) and that the genome contains both moderately and highly repeated components. Some of the repetitive fraction of DNA consists of tandemly repeated ribosomal genes of which there are 500-1000 copies per genome (1.8-3.6% of the total DNA). Four other non-ribosomal repetitive sequences (comprising at least a further 2.0% of the total DNA) have been isolated from a DNA clone bank and their arrangement within the S. mansoni genome investigated by restriction and Southern blot analysis. These cloned segments of DNA appear in many different locations within the genome and thus are reminiscent of the interspersed DNA sequences described in higher eukaryotic organisms.     

基于改进人工蜂群优化支持向量机的睡眠分期

本研究提出通过改进人工蜂群算法优化支持向量机（IMABC-SVM）进行睡眠分期。对提取的离散小波变换分解数据分量、时域特征、非线性特征、微状态特征,使用ReliefF算法进行特征筛选,提取出最优特征矩阵,并由IMABC-SVM分类器对特征矩阵进行训练。为验证特征筛选与优化分类器效果,进行相关消融实验。结果表明IMABC-SVM方法精度可达89.97%。IMABC-SVM方法可为睡眠相关疾病的检测、预防和治疗提供有效的依据。     

从“脾肾两虚兼湿热瘀毒”论治少弱精子症

少弱精子症为本虚标实之证,以脾肾两虚为本,以湿热瘀毒为标,临证时宜补虚泻实,补脾肾之不足,泻湿热瘀毒,方能取效。     

Specificities of Ophthalmic Tumors: Usefulness of A National Network<br/>Spécificités des Tumeurs de la Sphère Ophtalmique: Utilité d’un Réseau National

We describe the most frequent malignant intraocular tumors, conjunctival tumors and some lids and orbital tumors. Primary intraocular malignant tumors are retinoblastoma in children and uveal melanoma in adults. For uveal melanoma, the liver is the most frequent site of metastasis and this is why it is justified to prescribe liver ultrasonography every 6 months to these patients. Metastatic tumors can occur in the uvea and more frequently in the posterior part called the choroid. They are more frequent after breast cancer and lung cancer. Conjunctival tumors can be epithelial (benign papillomas and epidermoid carcinomas) or melanocytic (benign naevi and melanomas) and sometimes from sebaceous gland origin (sebaceous carcinomas). Conjunctival malignancies can metastasize to the regional lymph nodes and other organs. All these tumors are rare tumors and need to be managed in expert centers. We describe the psychological consequences and the French national network organization for treatment of uveal malignant melanoma.

Résumé:
Nous décrivons les principales tumeurs malignes intraoculaires, les tumeurs conjonctivales et citons également quelques tumeurs orbitopalpébrales. Les tumeurs malignes primitives intraoculaires sont le rétinoblastome chez l’enfant et le mélanome uvéal chez l’adulte. Le mélanome uvéal métastase essentiellement au niveau du foie ce qui justifie une surveillance hépatique régulière. Les métastases peuvent survenir dans l’uvée également le plus souvent l’uvée postérieure ou choroïde et sont plus fréquentes après cancer du sein ou du poumon. Les tumeurs conjonctivales peuvent être épithéliales (papillome bénins et carcinome épidermoïdes malins in situ ou invasifs) ou mélanocytaires (nævi bénins et mélanome malins) voire parfois sébacées. Les tumeurs malignes invasives peuvent envahir les aires ganglionnaires et métastaser. Toutes ces tumeurs sont des tumeurs rares qui doivent être pris e en charge dans des centres experts. Nous décrivons leur retentissement psychologique et le réseau national de prise en charge du mélanome uvéal.     

L'image du corps en neurologie : de la cénesthésie à l'image spéculaire. Apports cliniques et théoriques de la psychanalyse

In neurology, the terms body schema and body image currently refer to two different body representations. These representations are meant to allow humans individuals to automatically adjust their bodies to space in sensorimotor activities and also have a semantic knowledge of their bodies and their body-space relationships. The term body image is also used in psychoanalysis, in a quite different maner. From the psychoanalytical point of view, body image is one of the registers of identity and the Other’s regard plays a primordial role in the subject's acquisition of this identity. The crucial role of this gaze appears in the term specular image. After reminding the reader of history and the predecessors of these terms, we consider the implications of the concept of specular image in neurology. We show that neurological pathology may have effects upon specular image, up to and including a disorganization of the structure of specular image when brain lesions affect body schema. This perspective permits to find out a coherence and a logic in some psychiatric-like symptoms of right hemispheric brain lesions.     

Synthesis and characterization of deoxynivalenol glucuronide: its comparative immunotoxicity with deoxynivalenol.

Deoxynivalenol (DON) is a mycotoxin commonly contaminating wheat, barley and corn. DON glucuronide (DONGLU) is a major DON metabolite. We synthesized and purified DONGLU and tested its immunotoxicity, hypothesizing that DONGLU would be much less toxic to K562 cells compared with DON. DONGLU was synthesized using rat liver microsomes, uridine-5'-diphosphoglucuronic acid and DON, and purified with a Sephadex LH-20 column and reverse phase HPLC. beta-Glucuronidase hydrolysis formed a product with retention time and UV spectrum identical with DON. Using atmospheric pressure chemical ionization in negative mode, the molecular mass (M-1) of purified DONGLU was 471 g/mol; in agreement with an expected molecular weight of 472 g/mol. MS and NMR indicated that the glucuronide moiety was conjugated with the carbon-3-hydroxyl group of DON. The cytotoxicity of DON and DONGLU were compared in cell culture using human erythroleukemia cell line K562. Fifty percent inhibition of cell number was observed with a DON concentration of 1.31 microM using a methylthaizol tetrazolium (MTS) cell viability assay whereas no significant cytotoxicity was observed for DONGLU at up to 270 microM. DONGLU did not influence DON toxicity at 0.5 microM, 1.3 microM and 8.4 microM concentration combinations of each compound. These data verified that DONGLU is a detoxification product of DON.     

Un nouveau cadre conceptuel de travail pour une psychiatrie revisitée ? Introduction à deux articles de E. Kandel

In two articles which appeared in the American Journal of Psychiatry and that were subsequently translated for Évolution Psychiatrique, E. Kandel examines the bases for a reinterpreted psychiatry that is prepared to confront the major challenge of the 3rd millenium: that of insight into the mind and brain. This requires a major reorganization of the discipline, which involves a reinvestment of the scientific approach and a critical  assessment of the data provided by psychoanalytical psychiatry and cognitive neurosciences. Seven concepts have therefore been proposed for interactive re-examination: consciousness, the unconscious, memory, emotion, development, desire, impulse. The dynamic relations existing between genetics and the environment allow one to see how evolutions are possible from actions at different levels, both psychotherapeutic and pharmacological. Imaging and other techniques provide additional objective information to the process of human interaction which remains the basis of psychiatry. A common framework for psychiatry and the neurosciences, a reconsideration and renewal of the psychoanalytical approach are both possible and necessary.     

Effects of in vitro and in vivo exposure to insulin upon glucose carbon accumulation in rat aorta: Different patterns of response for intima-media and adventitia

We have studied the effect of insulin upon the accumulation of glucose carbon into the intimamedia and the adventitia of rat aorta following in vitro exposure by adding insulin to the incubation medium, and in vivo exposure by producing relative hyperinsulinemia during life and subsequently incubating excised tissue in a medium containing no insulin. Hyperinsulinemia in vivo was either (1) endogenous—following 1.5 – 2 hr of refeeding after a 48-hr fast—or (2) exogenous—following an i.v. injection of insulin. For adventitia, a significant stimulation was found after both in vitro (+ 53%, p < 0.001) and in vivo exposure to insulin (+96%, p < 0.01 with endogenous insulin; +75%, p < 0.05 with a dosage of 2 U/kg of exogenous insulin). For intima-media, the stimulation was weak and insignificant after in vitro exposure (+ 11%, p > 0.30), but became important and significant after in vivo exposure to insulin (+100%, p < 0.001 with endogenous insulin; +50%, p < 0.05 with a dosage of 0.5 U/kg and +49%, p < 0.05 with a dosage of 2 U/kg of exogenous insulin). For the in vivo exposure experiments, we found a significant linear correlation (r = 0.611, p < 0.005) between plasma insulin concentrations and glucose carbon accumulations into intimamedias of control and refed rats. These results establish the insulin sensitivity of the adventitia and show a sensitivity of intima-media only to in vivo insulin exposure. These different behaviors of intima-media in vivo and in vitro may have a hemodynamic basis.     

A monoclonal antibody with ability to distinguish between NH2-terminal fragments derived from fibrinogen and fibrin

A stable hybridoma secreting homogeneous antibody (immunoglobulin class IgG2a) has been prepared by fusion using cells of immunoglobulin non-secreter myeloma (P3X63Ag8.653) and spleen cells of mice which had previously been immunized with the NH2-terminal CNBr fragment of human fibrinogen, the so-called N-DSK [(A alpha 1-51, B beta 1-118, gamma 1-78)2]. In competitive ELISA or radioimmunoassay this antibody (MAb/1-8C6) cross-reacted with intact fibrinogen, N-DSK, a des fibrinopeptide A (des FPA) variant of N-DSK, the so-called (B)N-DSK, as well as the intact B beta chain (B beta 1-118) obtained from N-DSK. Also, and mot importantly, cross-reactivity was observed with fibrinogen-free ethanol extracts of plasma obtained from patients known to contain high levels of fibrinogen or fibrin degradation products. In vitro thrombin digestion of any of these competitors resulted in complete loss of cross-reactivity. MAb/1-8C6 did not react with the A alpha or gamma-chains of N-DSK, free fibrinopeptide B(FPB), free B beta 15-42, as well as equimolar mixtures of the latter two peptides. These results suggest that MAb/1-8C6 may be to an epitope in or around the thrombin-susceptible B beta 14 Arg-25 Gly bond. Furthermore, due to its reactivity with patient plasma extracts, this antibody may be useful in clinical investigations dealing with fibrino(geno)lysis.