Mucin Dynamics in Intestinal Bacterial Infection

Bacterial gastroenteritis causes morbidity and mortality in humans worldwide. Murine Citrobacter rodentium infection is a model for gastroenteritis caused by the human pathogens enteropathogenic Escherichia coli and enterohaemorrhagic E. coli. Mucin glycoproteins are the main component of the first barrier that bacteria encounter in the intestinal tract.Using Immunohistochemistry, we investigated intestinal expression of mucins (Alcian blue/PAS, Muc1, Muc2, Muc4, Muc5AC, Muc13 and Muc3/17) in healthy and C. rodentium infected mice. The majority of the C. rodentium infected mice developed systemic infection and colitis in the mid and distal colon by day 12. C. rodentium bound to the major secreted mucin, Muc2, in vitro, and high numbers of bacteria were found in secreted MUC2 in infected animals in vivo, indicating that mucins may limit bacterial access to the epithelial surface. In the small intestine, caecum and proximal colon, the mucin expression was similar in infected and non-infected animals. In the distal colonic epithelium, all secreted and cell surface mucins decreased with the exception of the Muc1 cell surface mucin which increased after infection (p<0.05). Similarly, during human infection Salmonella St Paul, Campylobacter jejuni and Clostridium difficile induced MUC1 in the colon.Major changes in both the cell-surface and secreted mucins occur in response to intestinal infection

Neural Network Development in Late Adolescents during Observation of Risk-Taking Action

Emotional maturity and social awareness are important for adolescents, particularly college students beginning to face the challenges and risks of the adult world. However, there has been relatively little research into personality maturation and psychological development during late adolescence and the neural changes underlying this development. We investigated the correlation between psychological properties (neuroticism, extraversion, anxiety, and depression) and age among late adolescents (n = 25, from 18 years and 1 month to 22 years and 8 months). The results revealed that late adolescents became less neurotic, less anxious, less depressive and more extraverted as they aged. Participants then observed video clips depicting hand movements with and without a risk of harm (risk-taking or safe actions) during functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). The results revealed that risk-taking actions elicited significantly stronger activation in the bilateral inferior parietal lobule, temporal visual regions (superior/middle temporal areas), and parieto-occipital visual areas (cuneus, middle occipital gyri, precuneus). We found positive correlations of age and extraversion with neural activation in the insula, middle temporal gyrus, lingual gyrus, and precuneus. We also found a negative correlation of age and anxiety with activation in the angular gyrus, precentral gyrus, and red nucleus/substantia nigra. Moreover, we found that insula activation mediated the relationship between age and extraversion. Overall, our results indicate that late adolescents become less anxious and more extraverted with age, a process involving functional neural changes in brain networks related to social cognition and emotional processing. The possible neural mechanisms of psychological and social maturation during late adolescence are discussed

Droit et société en France et en Grande-Bretagne (XIIe-XXe siècles)

Le droit prend une place toujours plus importante dans notre société, et il pose à l’Europe entière un problème difficile qu’il est pourtant urgent de résoudre : comment construire un droit, un système judiciaire - ou du moins un ensemble cohérent de systèmes judiciaires - alors que la plupart des droits européens ont une longue histoire, qui n’est pas seulement une histoire de doctrines ou de normes, mais aussi celle de la symbiose dans laquelle ces droits ont vécu avec les sociétés qui les ont créés, appliqués ou subis. Le Groupe de recherche France-Îles Britanniques a choisi de consacrer son premier colloque à une confrontation entre la France et l’Angleterre sur le thème « Droit et société », car on peut dans ce domaine comparer terme à terme la situation anglaise (puis britannique) avec celle de la France sur un millénaire : des questions diverses y sont abordées, de la production des lois et de l’idéologie qui l’inspire, à la représentation que se fait la société du droit, de la justice et des juges, en passant par la fonction et le statut sociaux des hommes de loi. La vision et la perception des pauvres et des marginaux n’ont pas été oubliées dans un ouvrage qui se veut un tremplin vers de futures recherches