Low-dose hyper-radiosensitivity of progressive and regressive cells isolated from a rat colon tumour: impact of DNA repair.

International audiencePURPOSE: To ask whether highly metastatic sublines show more marked low-dose hyper-radiosensitivity (HRS) response than poorly metastatic ones. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The progressive (PRO) subline showing tumourigenicity and metastatic potential and the regressive (REG) subline showing neither tumourigenicity nor metastatic potential were both isolated from a parental rat colon tumour. Clonogenic survival, micronuclei and apoptosis, cell cycle distribution, DNA single- (SSB) and double-strand breaks (DSB) induction and repair were examined. RESULTS: HRS phenomenon was demonstrated in PRO subline. Before irradiation, PRO cells show more spontaneous damage than REG cells. After 0.1 Gy, PRO cells displayed: (i) More DNA SSB 15 min post-irradiation, (ii) more unrepaired DNA DSB processed by the non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) and by the RAD51-dependent recombination pathways, (iii) more micronuclei, than REG cells while neither apoptosis nor p53 phosphorylation nor cell cycle arrest was observed in both sublines. CONCLUSIONS: HRS response of PRO subline may be induced by impairments in NHEJ repair that targets G(1) cells and RAD51-dependent repair that targets S-G(2)/M cells. The cellular consequences of such impairments are a failure to arrest in cell cycle, the propagation of damage through cell cycle, mitotic death but not p53-dependent apoptosis. Tumourigenic cells with high metastatic potential may preferentially show HRS response

On-line PLE-LC sample preparation for the measurement of dioxins and WHO-PCBs in food and feed

peer reviewe

Filtres à l'entrée et tests de prérequis pour les étudiants dans l'enseignement supérieur:une aide à la réussite ?

Les filtres à l’entrée à l’université restent un sujet clivant et relativement sensible en Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles (FWB). Certains les appellent de leurs vœux alors que d’autres y sont totalement réfractaires. La présente contribution vise à dresser un état des lieux général sur cette probléma- tique. Dans un premier temps, nous intro- duirons la problématique et la manière dont elle se présente en lien avec quelques par- ticularités de notre système éducatif. Dans un deuxième temps, nous réaliserons un cadastre des filtres à l’entrée de notre enseignement supérieur. Dans un troisième temps, nous présenterons un relevé de la littérature, portant sur les divers instru- ments de sélection utilisés lors de la sélec- tion des futurs médecins à travers le monde. Nous livrerons une analyse de leurs forces, mais également de leurs faiblesses rela- tives. Enfin, nous présenterons une étude portant sur le projet « Passeport pour le Bac» mis en place par l’Université de Namur. Nous tenterons d’analyser dans quelle mesure ce dispositif de tests en début de cursus permet de prédire la réus- site et/ou l’échec des étudiants. Notre conclusion, supportée par ces analyses, est qu’un test de prérequis bien calibré, dia- gnostique et précoce permettrait d’identi- fier une population dont les probabilités de réussite sont faibles et qui pourrait ainsi être réorientée ou faire l’objet d’une attention soutenue en début d’année pour lui per- mettre d’atteindre rapidement une maîtrise minimale des prérequis qui lui manquent

Cell therapy in Huntington's disease: taking stock of past studies to move the field forward

Huntington's disease (HD) is a rare inherited neurodegenerative disease that manifests mostly in adulthood with progressive cognitive, behavioral, and motor dysfunction. Neuronal loss occurs predominantly in the striatum but also extends to other brain regions, notably the cortex. Most patients die around 20 years after motor onset, although there is variability in the rate of progression and some phenotypic heterogeneity. The most advanced experimental therapies currently are huntingtin‐lowering strategies, some of which are in stage 3 clinical trials. However, even if these approaches are successful, it is unlikely that they will be applicable to all patients or will completely halt continued loss of neural cells in all cases. On the other hand, cellular therapies have the potential to restore atrophied tissues and may therefore provide an important complementary therapeutic avenue. Pilot studies of fetal cell grafts in the 2000s reported the most dramatic clinical improvements yet achieved for this disease, but subsequent studies have so far failed to identify methodology to reliably reproduce these results. Moving forward, a major challenge will be to generate suitable donor cells from (nonfetal) cell sources, but in parallel there are a host of procedural and trial design issues that will be important for improving reliability of transplants and so urgently need attention. Here, we consider findings that have emerged from clinical transplant studies in HD to date, in particular new findings emerging from the recent multicenter intracerebral transplant HD study, and consider how these data may be used to inform future cell therapy trials

Enseignements à échelle 1/1

Résumé. Des étudiant·es qui fabriquent et construisent, dansent ou plantent des arbres. Autant de scènes inaccoutumées dans une faculté universitaire et qui pourtant se sont multipliées ces dernières années au sein de LOCI. Alors, à quoi rime tout ce remue-ménage ? Cet article vise modestement à mieux faire connaître et à encourager ce que notre Faculté a pris l'habitude de désigner comme enseignement à échelle 1/1. Les doubles pages qui suivent présentent trois activités d'enseignement à échelle 1/1, respectivement sur les sites de Bruxelles, Louvain-la-Neuve et Tournai. Abstract. Students who fabricate and construct, dance or plant trees. As many unexpected activities in the context of a university faculty, which have nevertheless proliferated in recent years at LOCI. What is behind this movement? This article aims to inform and encourage what our faculty has come to call 1/1-scale teaching. The following double-page spreads present 3 teaching activities at scale 1/1, respectively on the sites of Brussels, Louvain-la-Neuve and Tournai

Levels and trends of PCDD/Fs and cPCBs in the Belgian food-stuffs one year after the "Dioxin Crisis

peer reviewe

Biological and radiological exploration and management of non-functioning pituitary adenoma

AbstractNon-functioning pituitary adenoma may be totally asymptomatic and discovered “incidentally” during radiological examination for some other indication, or else induce tumoral signs with compression of the optic chiasm and pituitary dysfunction. Non-functioning adenomas are mainly gonadotroph, but may also be “silent”. Treatment strategy depends on initial clinical, biological, ophthalmological and radiological findings. The present French Society of Endocrinology Consensus work-group sought to update the pitfalls associated with hormone assay and outline a hormonal exploration strategy for diagnosis and follow-up, without overlooking the particularities of silent adenoma. We also drew up basic rules for initial exploration and radiological follow-up of both operated and non-operated pituitary adenomas

Protection, promotion and support of breast-feeding in Europe: progress from 2002 to 2007.

Objective To assess progress in the protection, promotion and support of breast-feeding in Europe. Design Data for 2002 and 2007 were gathered with the same questionnaire. Of thirty countries, twenty-nine returned data for 2002, twenty-four for 2007. Results The number of countries with national policies complying with WHO recommendations increased. In 2007, six countries lacked a national policy, three a national plan, four a national breast-feeding coordinator and committee. Little improvement was reported in pre-service training; however, the number of countries with good coverage in the provision of WHO/UNICEF courses for in-service training increased substantially, as reflected in a parallel increase in the number of Baby Friendly Hospitals and the proportion of births taking place in them. Little improvement was reported as far as implementation of the International Code on Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes is concerned. Except for Ireland and the UK, where some improvement occurred, no changes were reported on maternity protection. Due to lack of standard methods, it was difficult to compare rates of breast-feeding among countries. With this in mind, slight improvements in the rates of initiation, exclusivity and duration were reported by countries where data at two points in time were available. Conclusions Breast-feeding rates continue to fall short of global recommendations. National policies are improving slowly but are hampered by the lack of action on maternity protection and the International Code. Pre-service training and standard monitoring of breast-feeding rates are the areas where more efforts are needed to accelerate progress