Lactobacillus paracasei Reduces Intestinal Inflammation in Adoptive Transfer Mouse Model of Experimental Colitis

Studies showed that specific probiotics provide therapeutic benefits in inflammatory bowel disease. In vitro evidence suggested that Lactobacillus paracasei also called ST11 (CNCM I-2116) is a potent strain with immune modulation properties. However, little is known about its capacity to alleviate inflammatory symptoms in vivo In this context, the main objective of this study was to investigate the role of ST11 on intestinal inflammation using the adoptive transfer mouse model of experimental colitis. Rag2−/− recipient mice were fed with ST11 (109 CFU/day)a month prior toinduce colitis by adoptive transfer of naive T cells. One month later, in clear contrast to nonfed mice, weight loss was significantly reduced by 50% in ST11-fed mice. Further analysis of colon specimens revealed a significant reduction neutrophil infiltration and mucosal expression of IL1β, IL-6, and IL12 proinflammatory cytokines, whereas no consistent differences in expression of antibacterial peptides or tight junction proteins were observed between PBS and ST11-fed mice. All together, our results demonstrate that oral administration of ST11 was safe and had a significant preventive effect on colitis. We conclude that probiotics such as Lactobacillus paracasei harbor worthwhile in vivo immunomodulatory properties to prevent intestinal inflammation by nutritional approaches

The Impact of Tap Connection on Water Consumption Patterns: The Case of Household Water Use in Dakar, Senegal

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Households' choice of water supply in Dakar (Senegal) [Les déterminants du choix d'approvisionnement en eau des ménages de Dakar]

L’objectif de cet article est d’expliquer les choix des ménages en matière d’approvisionnement en eau à partir de données d’enquête concernant 302 ménages Dakarois (Sénégal). L’estimation d’un modèle Probit bivarié permet de considérer que les choix des ménages de s’approvisionner à un branchement privé ou/et à la borne fontaine ne sont pas indépendants. Cet article fournit des résultats nouveaux sur l’accès à l’eau des ménages en Afrique. En particulier, nous montrons que des facteurs tels que le statut du chef de ménage (femme veuve) et la qualité du service sont des déterminants importants des choix des ménage

Les déterminants du choix d'approvisionnement en eau des ménages de Dakar

The purpose of this article is to explain the choice of water supply by urban households using microdata from Dakar (Senegal). Using data on 301 households, we estimate a bivariate Probit model to explain household?s decision to rely on a private water connection at home or/and to get water from the public standpipe. This article contributes to the still short literature on households? water supply in Africa. In particular, we show that the household head status (being a widow) as well as quality of the supply service have a significant impact on households? choices.revealed preferences, drinking water, bivariate probit, Senegal

Changes in Microcystis metabolic profiles in response to intra-specific interactions evidenced by a co-culturing/molecular networking approach

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Changes in Microcystis metabolic profiles in response to intra-specific interactions evidenced by a co-culturing/molecular networking approach

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Metabolic profiling comparison of the toxic Microcystis aeruginosa PCC 7806 strain and its non-toxic mutant

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Determinants of the brain-specific expression of the rat aldolase C gene: ex vivo and in vivo analysis

A 115-bp promoter fragment of the aldolase C gene is sufficient for conferring neural cell specificity on a reporter gene, in cultured PC12 cells and in transgenic mice. In vitro DNase I protection experiments detected two footprints on the promoter, termed boxes A/A', and B. The 5' A/A' box contains overlapping Sp1 and Krox20/Krox24 binding sites; it binds Sp1 in fibroblasts (box A') and a different complex in brain (box A). Any deletion or mutation of this box that impairs protein recognition also suppresses promoter activity. The replacement of box A/A' by a Sp1 consensus binding site results in the loss of the brain specificity of expression in transgenic mice. Further 3', box B is composed of a 5' direct repeat and a 3' GC box consisting of overlapping Sp1 and Krox20/Krox24 binding sites. Mutation of the direct repeat subregion appears to be more deleterious for the promoter activity than mutation of the G+C-rich subregion

Changes in permissiveness for the expression of microinjected DNA during the first cleavages of mouse embryos.

International audienceLacZ DNA and LacZ RNA were microinjected during the first cleavages of embryos. LacZ DNA was not expressed before 18-19 h post insemination (hpi) but LacZ RNA was translated. Before 22 hpi LacZ DNA was expressed in the pronuclei of the one-cell embryos and the polypeptides of the minor, but not the major activation period of the genome were synthesized. This suggests a negative control of transcription before 18-19 hpi and demonstrates that its resumption is independent of the first cleavage and of the major activation of the genome. At the time of the minor activation the eggs contain the trans-acting elements to express a variety of genes that they do not express. It may indicate that, the minor and the major activation of the genome are differently controlled