Julia Haig Gaisser, The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass. A Study in transmission and reception

Ce livre sur la réception du roman d’Apulée, paru peu après celui de R. Carver (voir le compte rendu plus haut), traite un sujet semblable, couvrant un champ chronologique légèrement plus étroit, de l’Antiquité à la Renaissance, dont il analyse essentiellement le versant italien. Une problématique clairement posée dès le départ en rend la lecture attrayante, ainsi que des synthèses très fermes en début et fin de chaque chapitre. Comme l’annonce le titre, la réception de l’Ane d’or ne peut êtr..

Julia Haig Gaisser, The Fortunes of Apuleius and the Golden Ass. A Study in transmission and reception

Ce livre sur la réception du roman d’Apulée, paru peu après celui de R. Carver (voir le compte rendu plus haut), traite un sujet semblable, couvrant un champ chronologique légèrement plus étroit, de l’Antiquité à la Renaissance, dont il analyse essentiellement le versant italien. Une problématique clairement posée dès le départ en rend la lecture attrayante, ainsi que des synthèses très fermes en début et fin de chaque chapitre. Comme l’annonce le titre, la réception de l’Ane d’or ne peut êtr..

Robert H. F. Carver, The Protean Ass. The Metamorphoses of Apuleius from Antiquity to the Renaissance

Faire l’histoire de la réception d’une œuvre aussi controversée que le roman d’Apulée relève de l’exploit. Le livre de R. C. se montre à la hauteur du défi, par la richesse et l’intelligence du propos. Il n’évite cependant pas toujours l’écueil de la digression et d’un éparpillement dû à la multiplicité des interprétations des Métamorphoses au cours de la longue période étudiée ici. Le livre part du principe que l’histoire de la réception d’un texte éclaire ses « potentialités herméneutiques ..

Human lung fibroblasts may modulate dendritic cell phenotype and function: results from a pilot in vitro study

International audienceAbstractIn human lung fibrotic lesions, fibroblasts were shown to be closely associated with immature dendritic cell (DC) accumulation. The aim of the present pilot study was to characterize the role of pulmonary fibroblasts on DC phenotype and function, using co-culture of lung fibroblasts from patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and from control patients, with a DC cell line MUTZ-3. We observed that co-culture of lung control and IPF fibroblasts with DCs reduced the expression of specific DC markers and down-regulated their T-cell stimulatory activity. This suggests that pulmonary fibroblasts might sustain chronic inflammation in the fibrotic lung by maintaining in situ a pool of immature DCs

Hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factors and their receptors in human lung emphysema

BACKGROUND: Hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factors are key growth factors in the process of alveolar repair. We hypothesized that excessive alveolar destruction observed in lung emphysema involves impaired expression of hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factors or their respective receptors, c-met and keratinocyte growth factor receptor. The aim of our study was to compare the expression of hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factors and their receptors in lung samples from 3 groups of patients: emphysema; smokers without emphysema and non-smokers without emphysema. METHODS: Hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factor proteins were analysed by immunoassay and western blot; mRNA expression was measured by real time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factors, c-met and keratinocyte growth factor receptor mRNA levels were similar in emphysema and non-emphysema patients. Hepatocyte growth factor mRNA correlated negatively with FEV1 and the FEV1/FVC ratio both in emphysema patients and in smokers with or without emphysema. Hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factor protein concentrations were similar in all patients' groups. CONCLUSION: The expression of hepatocyte and keratinocyte growth factors and their receptors is preserved in patients with lung emphysema as compared to patients without emphysema. Hepatocyte growth factor mRNA correlates with the severity of airflow obstruction in smokers

Induction of Heme Oxygenase-1, Biliverdin Reductase and H-Ferritin in Lung Macrophage in Smokers with Primary Spontaneous Pneumothorax: Role of HIF-1α

Few data concern the pathophysiology of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP), which is associated with alveolar hypoxia/reoxygenation. This study tested the hypothesis that PSP is associated with oxidative stress in lung macrophages. We analysed expression of the oxidative stress marker 4-HNE; the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory proteins heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), biliverdin reductase (BVR) and heavy chain of ferritin (H-ferritin); and the transcription factors controlling their expression Nrf2 and HIF-1alpha, in lung samples from smoker and nonsmoker patients with PSP (PSP-S and PSP-NS), cigarette smoke being a risk factor of recurrence of the disease.mRNA was assessed by RT-PCR and proteins by western blot, immunohistochemistry and confocal laser analysis. 4-HNE, HO-1, BVR and H-ferritin were increased in macrophages from PSP-S as compared to PSP-NS and controls (C). HO-1 increase was associated with increased expression of HIF-1alpha mRNA and protein in alveolar macrophages in PSP-S patients, whereas Nrf2 was not modified. To understand the regulation of HO-1, BVR and H-ferritin, THP-1 macrophages were exposed to conditions mimicking conditions in C, PSP-S and PSP-NS patients: cigarette smoke condensate (CS) or air exposure followed or not by hypoxia/reoxygenation. Silencing RNA experiments confirmed that HIF-1alpha nuclear translocation was responsible for HO-1, BVR and H-ferritin induction mediated by CS and hypoxia/reoxygenation.PSP in smokers is associated with lung macrophage oxidative stress. The response to this condition involves HIF-1alpha-mediated induction of HO-1, BVR and H-ferritin

New GJA8 variants and phenotypes highlight its critical role in a broad spectrum of eye anomalies

GJA8 encodes connexin 50 (Cx50), a transmembrane protein involved in the formation of lens gap junctions. GJA8 mutations have been linked to early onset cataracts in humans and animal models. In mice, missense mutations and homozygous Gja8 deletions lead to smaller lenses and microphthalmia in addition to cataract, suggesting that Gja8 may play a role in both lens development and ocular growth. Following screening of GJA8 in a cohort of 426 individuals with severe congenital eye anomalies, primarily anophthalmia, microphthalmia and coloboma, we identified four known [p.(Thr39Arg), p.(Trp45Leu), p.(Asp51Asn), and p.(Gly94Arg)] and two novel [p.(Phe70Leu) and p.(Val97Gly)] likely pathogenic variants in seven families. Five of these co-segregated with cataracts and microphthalmia, whereas the variant p.(Gly94Arg) was identified in an individual with congenital aphakia, sclerocornea, microphthalmia and coloboma. Four missense variants of unknown or unlikely clinical significance were also identified. Furthermore, the screening of GJA8 structural variants in a subgroup of 188 individuals identified heterozygous 1q21 microdeletions in five families with coloboma and other ocular and/or extraocular findings. However, the exact genotype–phenotype correlation of these structural variants remains to be established. Our data expand the spectrum of GJA8 variants and associated phenotypes, confirming the importance of this gene in early eye development

La conversion chrétienne du récit de voyage antique dans les Vies de moines de Jérôme

International audienceThis paper intends to show that Jerome, in his three biographies of monks (Lives of Saint Paul, Saint Malchos and Saint Hilarion), written between 376 and 392, "converts" classical travel narratives to hagiography, borrowing topics from ancient genres such as epos, history, geography or novel. But at the same time the author creates a new literary frame for these christian peregrinationes. Indeed, these short novels offer him the opportunity to think about how difficult it is to understand the eremitic xeniteia. Is it possible to be in touch with a holy man whose holiness comes from the fact that he is always fleeing human society, to get nearer to God? The solution proposed by Jerome belongs to literary art: he paradoxically succeeds in making obvious the holy man's absence, thanks to the rhetorical device of euidentia. The text, which generates mental visions, moves the Christian reader spiritually closer to the holy man, although that figure's holiness depends on a sort of exclusion of every kind of relationship

Le poème de Rutilius Namatianus et la tradition du récit de voyage antique : à propos du «genre» du De reditu suo

Soler Joëlle. Le poème de Rutilius Namatianus et la tradition du récit de voyage antique : à propos du «genre» du De reditu suo. In: Vita Latina, N°174, 2006. pp. 104-113

Virgile, prophète du monothéisme dans l’Antiquité tardive ?

International audienceThe Christians of Late Antiquity, taken as a whole, do not consider Virgil as a prophet of their beliefs, unlike the Sibyl, whose “true” oracles are considered to have inspired the poet. For most of the non-Christians of the declining Empire, Virgil, whose prestige and authority are unequaled, is not the sacred author of a “pagan Bible”, as some scholars have written. Examples of such interpretations are isolated (the Speech to the Assembly of the Saints, the Cento of Proba, the Saturnalia of Macrobius) and bear witness to monotheistic appropriations, Christian and non-Christian, which remain very original, and crystallize the different stages of the Christianization of the Roman empire.Les chrétiens de l’Antiquité tardive, pris dans leur ensemble, ne considèrent pas Virgile comme un prophète de leurs croyances, contrairement à la Sibylle, dont les oracles « véridiques » auraient inspiré le poète. Pour la plupart des non-chrétiens de l’empire tardif, Virgile, dont le prestige et l’autorité sont inégalables, n’est pas non plus pour autant l’auteur sacré d’une « Bible païenne », comme l’ont écrit certains historiens de la période. Les exemples de telles interprétations sont isolés (le Discours à l’Assemblée des Saints, le Centon de Proba, les Saturnales de Macrobe) et témoignent d’appropriations monothéistes, chrétiennes et non chrétiennes, très originales, qui cristallisent les différentes étapes de la christianisation de l’empire