Reelin Controls Progenitor Cell Migration in the Healthy and Pathological Adult Mouse Brain

Understanding the signals that control migration of neural progenitor cells in the adult brain may provide new therapeutic opportunities. Reelin is best known for its role in regulating cell migration during brain development, but we now demonstrate a novel function for reelin in the injured adult brain. First, we show that Reelin is upregulated around lesions. Second, experimentally increasing Reelin expression levels in healthy mouse brain leads to a change in the migratory behavior of subventricular zone-derived progenitors, triggering them to leave the rostral migratory stream (RMS) to which they are normally restricted during their migration to the olfactory bulb. Third, we reveal that Reelin increases endogenous progenitor cell dispersal in periventricular structures independently of any chemoattraction but via cell detachment and chemokinetic action, and thereby potentiates spontaneous cell recruitment to demyelination lesions in the corpus callosum. Conversely, animals lacking Reelin signaling exhibit reduced endogenous progenitor recruitment at the lesion site. Altogether, these results demonstrate that beyond its known role during brain development, Reelin is a key player in post-lesional cell migration in the adult brain. Finally our findings provide proof of concept that allowing progenitors to escape from the RMS is a potential therapeutic approach to promote myelin repair

Specific fatty acid intake and the risk of pancreatic cancer in Canada

The possible association of specific fatty acid (FA) intake and pancreatic cancer risk was investigated in a population-based case–control study of 462 histologically confirmed cases and 4721 frequency-matched controls in eight Canadian provinces between 1994 and 1997. Dietary intake was assessed by means of a self-administered food frequency questionnaire. Unconditional logistic regression was used to assess associations between dietary FAs and pancreatic cancer risk. After adjustment for age, province, body mass index, smoking, educational attainment, fat and total energy intake, statistically significant inverse associations were observed between pancreatic cancer risk and palmitate (odds ratios (ORs)=0.73; 95% confidence intervals (CIs) 0.56–0.96; P-trend=0.02), stearate (OR=0.70; 95% CI 0.51–0.94; P-trend=0.04), oleate (OR=0.75; 95% CI 0.55–1.02; P-trend=0.04), saturated FAs (OR=0.67; 95% CI 0.50–0.91; P-trend=0.01), and monounsaturated FAs (OR=0.72; 95% CI 0.53–0.98; P-trend=0.02), when comparing the highest quartile of intake to the lowest. Significant interactions were detected between body mass index and both saturated and monounsaturated FAs, with a markedly reduced risk associated with intake of stearate (OR=0.36; 95% CI 0.18–0.70; P-trend=0.001), oleate (OR=0.36; 95% CI 0.19–0.72; P-trend=0.002), saturated FAs (OR=0.35; 95% CI 0.18–0.67; P-trend=0.002), and monounsaturated FAs (OR=0.32; 95% CI 0.16–0.63; P-trend<0.0001) among subjects who are obese. The results suggest that substituting polyunsaturated FAs with saturated or monounsaturated FAs may reduce pancreatic cancer risk, independently of total energy intake, particularly among obese subjects

Analysis of temporal changes in macrobenthic communities on the basis of probable species presence.

International audienceStatistical analysis of long-term changes in marine communities generally involves recourse to multivariate methods. Some of these, such as Correspondence Analysis (CA), are very sensitive to the presence of rare species in the data, whereas other methods, such as Principal Components analysis (PCA) or Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) are only sensitive to the dominant species. Thus, it is necessary to identify rare species. We used an original method of species determination, based on a multinomial scheme and permitting the generalization of the classical presence/absence coding from a probabilistic viewpoint. This selection method was applied to the identification of the different categories of species (rare, intermediate or dominant) that constitute the muddy fine sand community of the Bay of Morlaix. Multidimensional Scaling was performed on the Bhattacharrya interdistance table between observations, based on dominant species. The results of this analysis were compared to those of several correspondence analyses carried out on both tables of presence/absence codings (the usual and the generalized ones)

Forecasting physicochemical variables by a Classification Tree method. Application to the Berre Lagoon (South France)

The dynamics of the "Etang de Berre", a brackish lagoon situated close to the French Mediterranean sea coast, is strongly disturbed by freshwater inputs coming from an hydroelectric power station. The system dynamics has been described as a sequence of daily typical states from a set of physicochemical variables such as temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen rates collected over three years by an automatic sampling station. Each daily pattern summarizes the evolution, hour by hour of the physicochemical variables. This article presents results of forecasts of the states of the system subjected to the simultaneous effects of meteorological conditions and freshwater releases. We recall the main step of the classification tree method used to build up the predictive model (Classification and Regression Trees, Breiman et al., 1984) and we propose a transfer procedure in order to test the stability of the model. Results obtained on the Etang de Berre data set allow us to describe and predict the effects of the environmental variables on the system dynamics with a margin of error. The transfer procedure applied after the tree building process gives a maximum gain in prediction accuracy of about 15%

Foraging behaviour of satellite-tracked king penguins in relation to sea surface temperature obtained by satellite telemetry at Crozet Archipelago, a study during three austral summers

We investigated the foraging behaviour of king penguins in relation to sea-surface temperature distribution over 3 years near the Crozet Arckipelago, South Indian Ocean. Within their range there are 2 hydrographic frontal systems, whose seasonal patterns of productivity are predictable. These are the Polar Front and the Sub-Antarctic Front. During the austral summer the foraging range of breeding king penguins was restricted to the Polar Frontal Zone, limited to the south by the Polar Front and to the north by the Sub-Antarctic Front. Most birds travelled towards the colder water situated south of Crozet, while other birds moved east to warmer water. Birds travelling south spent more time than expected in the coldest waters generally associated with the Polar Front. Birds travelling east reached the southern limit of the Sub-Antarctic Front (sea-surface temperature between 8 and 10 degrees C). Within the Polar Frontal Zone birds differed in their foraging behaviour, with incubating birds remaining at sea for longer times and covering longer distances. During the incubation period, king penguins travelling south tended to spend their time in areas with a sea-surface temperature between 4 and 5 degrees C, which coincide with the location of the Polar Front. Though these birds remained at sea longer, they did not go any further south than birds having an egg ready to hatch or than birds in the brooding period, which appeared to travel more directly towards the Polar Front, As the breeding season progressed, the Polar Front moved further south, out of the range of the king penguins especially those with a newly hatched chick that were limited in the amount of time that they could spend at sea. King penguins breeding at Crozet may choose between 2 strategies, in which some birds forage towards the Sub-Antarctic Front but most travel south towards the Polar Front.</p

Spatial pattern in species richness of demersal fish assemblages on the continental shelf of the northern Mediterranean Sea: a multiscale analysis

The species richness pattern of groundfish species in the entire northern Mediterranean Sea was examined at 3 spatial scales: region, large biogeographical zone and basin. We analysed 1914 trawl hauls collected using a single sampling design in the trawlable areas of the continental shelves between the Strait of Gibraltar and the Strait of Dardanelles (from 36.3 to 45.7 degrees N and 5.3 degrees W to 28 E). Spatial pattern in species diversity was assessed using complementary methods (Chao2 estimates of total species richness, mean species richness and beta diversity). No matter which scale was used, the expected longitudinally decreasing trend in species richness, which has been widely described in previous studies, did not appear when comparing estimates of total species richness per unit of area. Only the mean species richness pattern showed a moderate eastwards decrease at the largest spatial scale, but the trend progressively disappeared as the scale of analysis was reduced. In contrast to what is usually expected, our results suggest that Atlantic inflow does not play a key role in the present spatial pattern of fish species richness within the northern Mediterranean Sea. Furthermore, we show that the Aegean Sea can no longer be considered the least species-diverse zone in the northern Mediterranean Sea. Our results provide the first description of a quantitative 'reference state', with which the temporal changes in species richness patterns throughout the entire northern Mediterranean Sea can be compared in the future