Expression and functions of galectin-7 in human and murine melanomas.

International audienceThe identification of galectin-7 as a p53-induced gene and its ability to induce apoptosis in many cell types support the hypothesis that galectin-7 has strong antitumor activity. This has been well documented in colon cancer. However, in some cases, such as breast cancer and lymphoma, its high expression level correlates with aggressive subtypes of cancer, suggesting that galectin-7 may have a dual role in cancer progression. In fact, in breast cancer, overexpression of galectin-7 alone is sufficient to promote metastasis to the bone and lung. In the present work, we investigated the expression and function of galectin-7 in melanoma. An analysis of datasets obtained from whole-genome profiling of human melanoma tissues revealed that galectin-7 mRNA was detected in more than 90% of biopsies of patients with nevi while its expression was more rarely found in biopsies collected from patients with malignant melanoma. This frequency, however, was likely due to the presence of normal epidermis tissues in biopsies, as shown our studies at the protein level by immunohistochemical analysis. Using the experimental melanoma B16F1 cell line, we found that melanoma cells can express galectin-7 at the primary tumor site and in lung metastasis. Moreover, we found that overexpression of galectin-7 increased the resistance of melanoma cells to apoptosis while inducing de novo egr-1 expression. Overexpression of galectin-7, however, was insufficient to modulate the growth of tumors induced by the subcutaneous injection of B16F1 cells. It also failed to modulate the dissemination of B16F1 cells to the lung

Galectin-1 is expressed in early-type neural progenitor cells and down-regulates neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the adult mammalian brain, neural stem cells (NSCs) proliferate in the dentate gyrus (DG) of the hippocampus and generate new neurons throughout life. A multimodal protein, Galectin-1, is expressed in neural progenitor cells (NPCs) and implicated in the proliferation of the NPCs in the DG. However, little is known about its detailed expression profile in the NPCs and functions in adult neurogenesis in the DG.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Our immunohistochemical and morphological analysis showed that Galectin-1 was expressed in the type 1 and 2a cells, which are putative NSCs, in the subgranular zone (SGZ) of the adult mouse DG. To study Galectin-1's function in adult hippocampal neurogenesis, we made <it>galectin-1 </it>knock-out mice on the C57BL6 background and characterized the effects on neurogenesis. In the SGZ of the <it>galectin-1 </it>knock-out mice, increased numbers of type 1 cells, DCX-positive immature progenitors, and NeuN-positive newborn neurons were observed. Using triple-labeling immunohistochemistry and morphological analyses, we found that the proliferation of the type-1 cells was increased in the SGZ of the <it>galectin-1 </it>knock-out mice, and we propose that this proliferation is the mechanism for the net increase in the adult neurogenesis in these knock-out mice DG.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Galectin-1 is expressed in the neural stem cells and down-regulates neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus.</p

Impaired spatial and contextual memory formation in galectin-1 deficient mice

Galectins are a 15 member family of carbohydrate-binding proteins that have been implicated in cancer, immunity, inflammation and development. While galectins are expressed in the central nervous system, little is known about their function in the adult brain. Previously we have shown that galectin-1 (gal-1) is expressed in the adult hippocampus, and, in particular, in putative neural stem cells in the subgranular zone. To evaluate how gal-1 might contribute to hippocampal memory function here we studied galectin-1 null mutant (gal-1-/-) mice. Compared to their wildtype littermate controls, gal-1-/- mice exhibited impaired spatial learning in the water maze and contextual fear learning. Interestingly, tone fear conditioning was normal in gal-1-/- mice suggesting that loss of gal-1 might especially impact hippocampal learning and memory. Furthermore, gal-1-/- mice exhibited normal motor function, emotion and sensory processing in a battery of other behavioral tests, suggesting that non-mnemonic performance deficits are unlikely to account for the spatial and contextual learning deficits. Together, these data reveal a role for galectin-carbohydrate signalling in hippocampal memory function

Identification and verification of heat shock protein 60 as a potential serum marker for colorectal cancer

Colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major public health issue worldwide, and novel tumor markers may contribute to its efficient management by helping in early detection, prognosis or surveillance of disease. The aim of our study was to identify new serum biomarkers for CRC, and we followed a phased biomarker discovery and validation process to obtain an accurate preliminary assessment of potential clinical utility. We compared colonic tumors and matched normal tissue from 15 CRC patients, using two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE), and identified 17 proteins that had significant differential expression. These results were further confirmed by western blotting for heat shock protein (HSP) 60, glutathione-S-transferase Pi, α-enolase, T-complex protein 1 subunit β, and leukocyte elastase inhibitor, and by immunohistochemistry for HSP60. Using mAbs raised against HSP60, we developed a reliable (precision of 5–15%) and sensitive (0.3 ng·mL−1) immunoassay for the detection of HSP60 in serum. Elevated levels of HSP60 were found in serum from CRC patients in two independent cohorts; the receiver-operating characteristic curve obtained in 112 patients with CRC and 90 healthy controls had an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.70, which was identical to the AUC of carcinoembryonic antigen. Combination of serum markers improved clinical performance: the AUC of a three-marker logistic regression model combining HSP60, carcinoembryonic antigen and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 reached 0.77. Serum HSP60 appeared to be more specific for late-stage CRC; therefore, future studies should evaluate its utility for determining prognosis or monitoring therapy rather than early detection

Mutations in Eml1 lead to ectopic progenitors and neuronal heterotopia in mouse and human.

Neuronal migration disorders such as lissencephaly and subcortical band heterotopia are associated with epilepsy and intellectual disability. DCX, PAFAH1B1 and TUBA1A are mutated in these disorders; however, corresponding mouse mutants do not show heterotopic neurons in the neocortex. In contrast, spontaneously arisen HeCo mice display this phenotype, and our study revealed that misplaced apical progenitors contribute to heterotopia formation. While HeCo neurons migrated at the same speed as wild type, abnormally distributed dividing progenitors were found throughout the cortical wall from embryonic day 13. We identified Eml1, encoding a microtubule-associated protein, as the gene mutated in HeCo mice. Full-length transcripts were lacking as a result of a retrotransposon insertion in an intron. Eml1 knockdown mimicked the HeCo progenitor phenotype and reexpression rescued it. We further found EML1 to be mutated in ribbon-like heterotopia in humans. Our data link abnormal spindle orientations, ectopic progenitors and severe heterotopia in mouse and human

Note sur les cartons employés aux Archives de la Loire

Poirier-Coutansais Françoise. Note sur les cartons employés aux Archives de la Loire. In: La Gazette des archives, n°33, 1961. pp. 86-87

Seizure-induced neuronal death is suppressed in the absence of the endogenous lectin Galectin-1

Pilocarpine injection induces epileptic seizures in rodents, an experimental paradigm extensively used to model temporal lobe epilepsy in humans. It includes conspicuous neuronal death in the forebrain and previous work has demonstrated an involvement of the neurotrophin receptor p75NTR in this process. Following the identification of Galectin-1 (Gal-1) as a downstream effector of p75NTR, we examine here the role of this endogenous lectin in pilocarpine-induced cell death in adult mice. We found that most somatostatin-positive neurons also express Gal-1 and that in mice lacking the corresponding gene Lgals1, pilocarpine-induced neuronal death was essentially abolished. We also found that the related lectin Galectin-3 (Gal-3) was strongly up-regulated by pilocarpine in microglial cells. This up-regulation was absent in Lgals1 mutants and our results with Lgals3 null animals show that Gal-3 is not required for neuronal death. These findings provide new insights into the roles and regulation of endogenous lectins in the adult CNS and a surprisingly selective pro-apoptotic role of Gal-1 for a sub-population of GABAergic interneurons

Contribution de Galectine-7 à la cicatrisation de l'épiderme

PARIS7-Bibliothèque centrale (751132105) / SudocSudocFranceF

Reducing the Cold-Start Problem in Content Recommendation Through Opinion Classification

Abstract—Like search engines, recommender systems have become a tool that cannot be ignored by websites with a large selection of products, music, news or simply webpages links. The performance of this kind of system depends on a large amount of information. At the same time, the amount of information on the Web is continuously growing, especially due to increased User Generated Content since the apparition of Web 2.0. In this paper, we propose a method that exploits blog textual data in order to supply a recommender system. The method we propose has two steps. First, subjective texts are labelled according to their expressed opinion in order to build a user-item-rating matrix. Second, this matrix is used to establish recommendations thanks to a collaborative filtering technique. Keywords-Opinion classification; User Generated Content; Recommender systems; Collaborative filterin