Guidelines for the labelling of leucocytes with 111In-oxine

We describe here a protocol for labelling autologous white blood cells with 111In-oxine based on previously published consensus papers and guidelines. This protocol includes quality control and safety procedures and is in accordance with current European Union regulations and International Atomic Energy Agency recommendations

Co-culture of primary rat hepatocytes with rat liver epithelial cells enhances interleukin-6-induced acute-phase protein response

Three different primary rat hepatocyte culture methods were compared for their ability to allow the secretion of fibrinogen and albumin under basal and IL-6-stimulated conditions. These culture methods comprised the co-culture of hepatocytes with rat liver epithelial cells (CC-RLEC), a collagen type I sandwich culture (SW) and a conventional primary hepatocyte monolayer culture (ML). Basal albumin secretion was most stable over time in SW. Fibrinogen secretion was induced by IL-6 in all cell culture models. Compared with ML, CC-RLEC showed an almost three-fold higher fibrinogen secretion under both control and IL-6-stimulated conditions. Induction of fibrinogen release by IL-6 was lowest in SW. Albumin secretion was decreased after IL-6 stimulation in both ML and CC-RLEC. Thus, cells growing under the various primary hepatocyte cell culture techniques react differently to IL-6 stimulation with regard to acute-phase protein secretion. CC-RLEC is the preferred method for studying cytokine-mediated induction of acute-phase proteins, because of the pronounced stimulation of fibrinogen secretion upon IL-6 exposure under these conditions

Capteurs à fibres optiques infrarouge dédiés à la détection in situ d'anomalies métaboliques

Le domaine du moyen infra-rouge contient l'essentiel des signatures spectrales des molécules biologiques. Le développement d'une nouvelle génération de fibres optiques travaillant dans ce domaine spectral, nous a pertuis de concevoir une instrumentation dédiée à la détection tissulaire d'anomalies métaboliques. La richesse des informations recueillies couplée à la possibilité de réaliser des analyses in-situ permet d'envisager son utilisation dans les contextes très variés du domaine de la santé. Nous cherchons à optimiser les performances du capteur IR en utilisant deux modèles distincts : le développement et la caractérisation d'un biofilm bactérien d'une part, les anomalies métaboliques associées aux pathologies hépatiques, d'autre part

Development of electronic nano-sensors for the detection of Escherichia coli

International audienc

Hepatitis B virus infection of adult human hepatocytes cultured in the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide

We investigated the possibility of infecting normal adult human hepatocytes maintained in pure cultures or in cocultures with hepatitis B virus (HBV). Several assays with different infectious sera and hepatocyte populations from various donors identified only limited HBV replication, with significant variations from one cell preparation to another. The addition of 1.5% dimethyl sulfoxide to the culture medium markedly enhanced the infection process. Indeed, hepatitis B e antigen secretion, the appearance of both HBV DNA replicative forms and major HBV transcripts, and the release of complete HBV particles into the medium were demonstrated. It is possible that the significant increase in intracellular HBV DNA in dimethyl sulfoxide-treated cells was related to enhanced adsorption of the virus. When viral particles produced by a transfected HepG2 cell line were used to infect normal hepatocytes, the same results were obtained. In addition, comparative assays with hepatocytes from three different donors showed that although high amounts of intracellular viral DNA were found in all cases, viral replicative intermediates were visualized in only one case. These findings suggest that this HBV-producing cell line could serve as a reproducible source of infectious virus and that primary culturing of human hepatocytes represents a unique tool for analyzing intracellular regulating factors which, in addition to the penetration step, modulate HBV replication.</jats:p