Age-Related Neuronal Degeneration: Complementary Roles of Nucleotide Excision Repair and Transcription-Coupled Repair in Preventing Neuropathology

Neuronal degeneration is a hallmark of many DNA repair syndromes. Yet, how DNA damage causes neuronal degeneration and whether defects in different repair systems affect the brain differently is largely unknown. Here, we performed a systematic detailed analysis of neurodegenerative changes in mouse models deficient in nucleotide excision repair (NER) and transcription-coupled repair (TCR), two partially overlapping DNA repair systems that remove helix-distorting and transcription-blocking lesions, respectively, and that are associated with the UV-sensitive syndromes xeroderma pigmentosum (XP) and Cockayne syndrome (CS). TCR–deficient Csa−/− and Csb−/− CS mice showed activated microglia cells surrounding oligodendrocytes in regions with myelinated axons throughout the nervous system. This white matter microglia activation was not observed in NER–deficient Xpa−/− and Xpc−/− XP mice, but also occurred in XpdXPCS mice carrying a point mutation (G602D) in the Xpd gene that is associated with a combined XPCS disorder and causes a partial NER and TCR defect. The white matter abnormalities in TCR–deficient mice are compatible with focal dysmyelination in CS patients. Both TCR–deficient and NER–deficient mice showed no evidence for neuronal degeneration apart from p53 activation in sporadic (Csa−/−, Csb−/−) or highly sporadic (Xpa−/−, Xpc−/−) neurons and astrocytes. To examine to what extent overlap occurs between both repair systems, we generated TCR–deficient mice with selective inactivation of NER in postnatal neurons. These mice develop dramatic age-related cumulative neuronal loss indicating DNA damage substrate overlap and synergism between TCR and NER pathways in neurons, and they uncover the occurrence of spontaneous DNA injury that may trigger neuronal degeneration. We propose that, while Csa−/− and Csb−/− TCR–deficient mice represent powerful animal models to study the mechanisms underlying myelin abnormalities in CS, neuron-specific inactivation of NER in TCR–deficient mice represents a valuable model for the role of NER in neuronal maintenance and survival

Rémy Ollier And Imperial Citizenship

This essay discusses Rémy Ollier’s (1816–45) journalism. As an early claimant of citizenship through (rather than against) the British Empire during the 1840s, Ollier attempted to redress a gap that he perceived between the institutionalization of rights in Britain and Mauritius. Established accounts of Ollier’s political intervention provide a rich narrative of how his efforts are implicated in the development of rights in Mauritius and broader postcolonial nationalisms. However, I argue that facets of his expression of imperial citizenship reside apart from this genealogy. To explore how Ollier uniquely created imperial citizenship, an “acts”-influenced approach to citizenship is adopted. By analyzing his writings in La Sentinelle de Maurice, I reveal how imperial citizenship is generated through a subversive loyalism to Britain and an orientalist portrayal of indentured labourers. I conclude by mobilizing Ollier’s struggle as a challenge to the notion that citizenship realizes itself in teleological fashion

Quelques aperçus de la recherche en histoire de l'éducation physique et des sports en France

Spivak Marcel. Quelques aperçus de la recherche en histoire de l'éducation physique et des sports en France. In: Histoire de l'éducation. n° 10, 1981. pp. 1-19

L'hygiène des troupes à la fin de l'Ancien Régime

Marcel Spivak : Troop hygiene at the end of the ancien régime. The question of troop hygiene has been neglected in the recent research into the life of soldiers. It is however of great importance even if only in connection with physical efficiency. There is also another more complex problem, that of the repercussions of the lamentable conditions in which soldiers lived on their behaviour when faced with revolutionary ferment. Influenced by a philosophy which encouraged them to improve some aspects of their troops' material conditions, the successive ministers for war, from Choi-seul to 1789, were perhaps aware of this problem. But it was not until the end of the 19th Century that strict regulations were introduced to put an end to practices which encouraged the propagation of fatal diseases.Spivak Marcel. L'hygiène des troupes à la fin de l'Ancien Régime. In: Dix-huitième Siècle, n°9, 1977. Le sain et le malsain. pp. 115-122

Pour une approche renouvelée de l'histoire de l'éducation physique et du sport

Spivak Marcel. Pour une approche renouvelée de l'histoire de l'éducation physique et du sport. In: Histoire de l'éducation. n° 10, 1981. pp. 21-32

La résistance prussienne à Napoléon Ier (1807-1813), d'après des documents inédits

Spivak Marcel. La résistance prussienne à Napoléon Ier (1807-1813), d'après des documents inédits. In: École pratique des hautes études. 4e section, Sciences historiques et philologiques. Annuaire 1974-1975. 1975. pp. 1035-1037

Le développement de l'éducation physique et du sport français de 1852 à 1914

Spivak Marcel. Le développement de l'éducation physique et du sport français de 1852 à 1914. In: Revue d’histoire moderne et contemporaine, tome 24 N°1, Janvier-mars 1977. pp. 28-48