The Eye of History

Review Article on Yongtao Du and Jeff Kyong-McClain (eds.), Chinese History in Geographical Perspectiv

Evidence of gene-environment interaction for two genes on chromosome 4 and environmental tobacco smoke in controlling the risk of nonsyndromic cleft palate

Nonsyndromic cleft palate (CP) is one of the most common human birth defects and both genetic and environmental risk factors contribute to its etiology. We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) using 550 CP case-parent trios ascertained in an international consortium. Stratified analysis among trios with different ancestries was performed to test for GxE interactions with common maternal exposures using conditional logistic regression models. While no single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) achieved genome-wide significance when considered alone, markers in SLC2A9 and the neighboring WDR1 on chromosome 4p16.1 gave suggestive evidence of gene-environment interaction with environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) among 259 Asian trios when the models included a term for GxE interaction. Multiple SNPs in these two genes were associated with increased risk of nonsyndromic CP if the mother was exposed to ETS during the peri-conceptual period (3 months prior to conception through the first trimester). When maternal ETS was considered, fifteen of 135 SNPs mapping to SLC2A9 and 9 of 59 SNPs in WDR1 gave P values approaching genome-wide significance (10-6<P<10-4) in a test for GxETS interaction. SNPs rs3733585 and rs12508991 in SLC2A9 yielded P = 2.26×10-7 in a test for GxETS interaction. SNPs rs6820756 and rs7699512 in WDR1 also yielded P = 1.79×10-7 and P = 1.98×10-7 in a 1 df test for GxE interaction. Although further replication studies are critical to confirming these findings, these results illustrate how genetic associations for nonsyndromic CP can be missed if potential GxE interaction is not taken into account, and this study suggest SLC2A9 and WDR1 should be considered as candidate genes for CP. © 2014 Wu et al

La Lecture “dans les lignes”: Henri Michaux et l’art chinois de l’écriture

Linguistic theory since the early twentieth century has been marked by a split in response to Chinese writing. In linguistics writing has often been regarded as parasitic on speech, an effort to represent the spoken word. In the area of poetics the response has been somewhat different. Ezra Pound, for example, found a structural method for constructing meaning in the composition of Chinese characters. Similar features interested Henri Michaux early in his career, but later Chinese graphs came to have extralinguistic significance. The locus of meaning for Michaux shifted from sign to line. Chinese writing helped Michaux to recover what had been lost in Western writing as a result of the modernization of textual production. The result is the need for a revision in interpretive practice. Interpreting a text becomes not a matter of reading between the lines, but within the lines.Depuis le début du XXe siècle la théorie linguistique a été marquée par une scission en réponse à l’écriture chinoise. En linguistique, l’écriture a souvent été considérée comme parasitique du discours, dans son effort de représenter la parole. En poétique, la réponse a été un peu différente. Ezra Pound, par exemple, a trouvé une méthode structurale pour la construction du sens dans la composition des caractères chinois. Des caractéristiques similaires ont attiré l’attention d’Henri Michaux au début de sa carrière, mais successivement les caractères chinois ont acquis une importance extralinguistique. Le lieu du sens pour Michaux passe du signe à la ligne. L’écriture chinoise a aidé Michaux à retrouver ce qui avait été perdu dans l’écriture européenne, à cause de la modernisation de la production textuelle. Le résultat est la nécessité d’une révision de l’herméneutique pratique. L’interprétation d’un texte n’est plus une question de lecture entre les lignes, mais dans les lignes

New developments in the area of factor XIII

To cite this article: Schroeder V, Kohler HP. New developments in the area of factor XIII. J Thromb Haemost 2013; 11: 234-44. Summary.  Coagulation factor (F)XIII is best known for its role in fibrin stabilization and cross-linking of antifibrinolytic proteins to the fibrin clot. From patients with congenital FXIII deficiency, it is known that FXIII also has important functions in wound healing and maintaining pregnancy. Over the last decade more and more research groups with different backgrounds have studied FXIII and have unveiled putative novel functions for FXIII. FXIII, with its unique role as a transglutaminase among the other serine protease coagulation factors, is now recognized as a multifunctional protein involved in regulatory mechanisms and construction and repair processes beyond hemostasis with possible implications in many areas of medicine. The aim of this review was to give an overview of exciting novel findings and to highlight the remarkable diversity of functions attributed to FXIII. Of course, more research into the underlying mechanisms and (patho-)physiological relevance of the many described functions of FXIII is needed. It will be exciting to observe future developments in this area and to see if and how these interesting findings may be translated into clinical practice in the future