Spermatozoal sensitive biomarkers to defective protaminosis and fragmented DNA

Human sperm DNA damage may have adverse effects on reproductive outcome. Infertile men possess substantially more spermatozoa with damaged DNA compared to fertile donors. Although the extent of this abnormality is closely related to sperm function, the underlying etiology of ensuing male infertility is still largely controversial. Both intra-testicular and post-testicular events have been postulated and different mechanisms have been proposed to explain the presence of damaged DNA in human spermatozoa. Three among them, i.e. abnormal chromatin packaging, oxidative stress and apoptosis, are the most studied and discussed in the present review. Furthermore, results from numerous investigations are presented, including our own findings on these pathological conditions, as well as the techniques applied for their evaluation. The crucial points of each methodology on the successful detection of DNA damage and their validity on the appraisal of infertile patients are also discussed. Along with the conventional parameters examined in the standard semen analysis, evaluation of damaged sperm DNA seems to complement the investigation of factors affecting male fertility and may prove an efficient diagnostic tool in the prediction of pregnancy outcome

Potential biological role of poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) in male gametes

Maintaining the integrity of sperm DNA is vital to reproduction and male fertility. Sperm contain a number of molecules and pathways for the repair of base excision, base mismatches and DNA strand breaks. The presence of Poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP), a DNA repair enzyme, and its homologues has recently been shown in male germ cells, specifically during stage VII of spermatogenesis. High PARP expression has been reported in mature spermatozoa and in proven fertile men. Whenever there are strand breaks in sperm DNA due to oxidative stress, chromatin remodeling or cell death, PARP is activated. However, the cleavage of PARP by caspase-3 inactivates it and inhibits PARP's DNA-repairing abilities. Therefore, cleaved PARP (cPARP) may be considered a marker of apoptosis. The presence of higher levels of cPARP in sperm of infertile men adds a new proof for the correlation between apoptosis and male infertility. This review describes the possible biological significance of PARP in mammalian cells with the focus on male reproduction. The review elaborates on the role played by PARP during spermatogenesis, sperm maturation in ejaculated spermatozoa and the potential role of PARP as new marker of sperm damage. PARP could provide new strategies to preserve fertility in cancer patients subjected to genotoxic stresses and may be a key to better male reproductive health

ONLINE COLLABORATIVE WRITTEN ACTIVITIES IN L2 FOR THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

This study investigates the potential affordances of new technologies and the opportunities offered by wikis in facilitating L2 collaborative writing in university settings for the teaching of culture. Participants were 92 undergraduate students of Italian as foreign language in the department of Italian Language and Literature of the university of Athens. They attended and participated in a laboratory course of alternative culture environments and online activities in foreign language. A task-based wiki environment managed to involve the students in a variety of online activities culturally meaningful and authentic educational activities. An initial and a final questionnaire were selected and analysed by ANOVA and POST HOC TEST (Tukey) confirming that online collaborative wikis tools are able to promote teamwork, can increase knowledge of culture and foreign language and can create positive conditions for cultivating creativity and collaborative, written expression. Article visualizations

Aldo Civico: The Para-state: An Ethnography of Colombia's Death Squads. In : « Analyses bibliographiques »

International audienceBook review. Abstract of the review: Civico’s work is motivated by a query about the mutual relation between armed groups and the state. This inquiry stands at the crossroads of political science, anthropology and development studies: what do the experiences of paramilitary violence suggest about the notions of modernity, state and democracy? His study thus builds on existing literature on violence as a feature of modern states, including democracies (Aretxaga 1999; Paley, 2001). For Civico, the two-ways process in which a state’s margins are controlled through intertwinement with paramilitary groups expresses the state’s function of capture. The author could certainly have expanded his analysis through such notion and its related literature. He only briefly refers to the economy of capture, hopefully inspiring scholars to further research through the Colombian case

Modération de table ronde: L'Approvisionnement alimentaire entre ressources et pouvoirs: pour la parution du numéro thématique de la RIED

International audienceAvec des intervenant.e.s du CESSMA, du CIRAD, du CNRS, du Club Déméter, de Commerce Equitable France, du Gret ou encore du secteur privé

Políticas públicas en África Occidental: el caso de los polos de crecimiento agrícolas. Caracterización a través de tres estudios de caso

International audienc

Par quelles politiques publiques sont accompagnés les agropoles en Afrique de l’Ouest ? 3 études de cas au Burkina Faso, en Côte d’Ivoire et au Sénégal

National audienc