Prenatal exposure to nicotine, tobacco’s major addictive constituent, has been shown to reduce birth weight and increases apoptosis, oxidative stress, and mitochondrial dysfunction in the postnatal pancreas. Given that upregulated levels of the pro-oxidative adapter protein p66shc is observed in growth-restricted offspring and is linked to beta-cell apoptosis, the goal of this study was to investigate whether alterations in p66shc expression underlie the pancreatic deficits in nicotine-exposed offspring. Maternal administration of nicotine in rats increased p66shc expression in the neonatal pancreas. Similarly, nicotine treatment augmented p66shc expression in INS-1E pancreatic beta cells. Increased p66shc expression was also associated with decreased histone H3 lysine 9 methylation. Finally, nicotine increased the expression of Kdm4c, a key histone lysine demethylase, and decreased Suv39h1, a critical histone lysine methyltransferase. Collectively, these results suggest that upregulation of p66shc through posttranslational histone modifications may underlie the reported adverse outcomes of nicotine exposure on pancreatic function.

With the legalization of marijuana (Cannabis sativa) and increasing use during pregnancy, it is important to understand its impact on exposed offspring. Specifically, the effects of Δ-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9-THC), the major psychoactive component of cannabis, on fetal ovarian development and long-term reproductive health are not fully understood. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of prenatal exposure to Δ9-THC on ovarian health in adult rat offspring. At 6 months of age, Δ9-THC-exposed offspring had accelerated folliculogenesis with apparent follicular development arrest, but no persistent effects on circulating steroid levels. Ovaries from Δ9-THC-exposed offspring had reduced blood vessel density in association with decreased expression of the pro-angiogenic factor VEGF and its receptor VEGFR-2, as well as an increase in the anti-angiogenic factor thrombospondin 1 (TSP-1). Collectively, these data suggest that exposure to Δ9-THC during pregnancy alters follicular dynamics during postnatal life, which may have long-lasting detrimental effects on female reproductive health.

Although abundant evidence exists that adverse events during pregnancy lead to chronic conditions, there is limited information on the impact of acute insults such as sepsis. This study tested the hypothesis that impaired fetal development leads to altered organ responses to a septic insult in both male and female adult offspring. Fetal growth restricted (FGR) rats were generated using a maternal protein-restricted diet. Male and female FGR and control diet rats were housed until 150–160 d of age when they were exposed either a saline (control) or a fecal slurry intraperitoneal (Sepsis) injection. After 6 h, livers and lungs were analyzed for inflammation and, additionally, the amounts and function of pulmonary surfactant were measured. The results showed increases in the steady-state mRNA levels of inflammatory cytokines in the liver in response to the septic insult in both males and females; these responses were not different between FGR and control diet groups. In the lungs, cytokines were not detectable in any of the experimental groups. A significant decrease in the relative amount of surfactant was observed in male FGR offspring, but this was not observed in control males or in female animals. Overall, it is concluded that FGR induced by maternal protein restriction does not impact liver and lung inflammatory response to sepsis in either male or female adult rats. An altered septic response in male FGR offspring with respect to surfactant may imply a contribution to lung dysfunction.

Temporal and spatial patterns in flowering phenology were assessed for eight tropical African tree species. Specifically, the frequency and seasonality of flowering at seven sites in central Africa were determined using field data, graphical analysis and circular statistics. Additionally, spatial variation in the timing of flowering across species range was investigated using herbarium data, analysing the relative influence of latitude, longitude and timing of the dry season with a Bayesian circular generalized linear model. Annual flowering was found for 20 out of the 25 populations studied. For 21 populations located at the north of the climatic hinge flowering was occurring during the dry season. The analysis of herbarium collections revealed a significant shift in the timing of flowering with latitude for E. suaveolens, and with the timing of the dry season for M. excelsa (and to a lesser extent L. alata), with the coexistence of two flowering peaks near the equator where the distribution of monthly rainfall is bimodal. For the other species, none of latitude, longitude or timing of the dry season had an effect on the timing of flowering. Our study highlights the need to identify the drivers of the flowering phenology of economically important African tree species.

Schizophrenia is associated with profound communication disorders resulting in a major social handicap. Hardy-Baylé and colleagues hypothesized that such impairments are related to a failure to process contextual integration. Previous studies based on event related potentials recordings (ERP) during semantic priming tasks have shown that schizophrenic patients have abnormal modulation of the N400 component. Supposedly, this electrical characteristic reflects an abnormal use of semantic context during word processing. However, the neural substratum underlying this pathological phenomenon remains poorly understood. To enrich knowledge inherited from ERP studies, we used magneto-encephalography (MEG) to determine the peculiarities (in anatomical and temporal terms) of the neural generators involved in semantic context integration in schizophrenia. The current study consisted in recording ERP and MEG signals during a French word-pairs lexical decision task (LDT). Subjects had to decide whether “target words” belonged to the lexicon or not, those words being preceded by word primes. The semantic relatedness between primes and targets varied (presence or absence) across two experimental conditions. Data obtained from a group of treated schizophrenic patients are compared to those from a healthy population. We report the preliminary results of schizophrenic subjects demonstrating that semantic priming elicits magnetic signals in the 300 to 500ms time window. Single subject's analysis of ERP and MEG profiles shows that the latter offers a different and complementary access to the brain response associated with LTD. Thus, MEG technique is suitable for investigating schizophrenic semantic priming abnormalities.

The transplant representations of patients waiting for a kidney transplantation have been studied recently. Our hypotheses is that these representations can be measured with a questionnaire and differ between recipients from living or cadaveric donor. As result of lack of clinical standardized instrument,we developed the Transplant Representation Questionnaire(TRQ) of 19 items in 4 degrees.

L’internat est une période de stress chronique élevé pour les étudiants en médecine qui doivent relever le défi d’apprendre à travailler en équipe, de devenir des médecins compétents, responsables et empathiques, dans un climat parfois compétitif. Les premières études analysant la prévalence des troubles psychiatriques chez les internes dans les années 1960 retrouvaient une prévalence de la dépression d’environ 30 %. Des travaux récents retrouvent des taux identiques ainsi qu’une augmentation significative de la prévalence du burn-out et des symptômes anxieux au cours de l’internat . Cependant, il semblerait que les internes souffrant de troubles psychiatriques se tournent peu vers les professionnels de santé , alors même que l’aggravation des symptômes retentit sur leur fonctionnement, notamment professionnel. Actuellement, il n’existe pas en France de recommandation claire quant à la prise en charge médicale et universitaire des internes en souffrance psychique, malgré des résultats encourageant d’interventions individuelles ou groupales . L’Association française fédérative des étudiants en psychiatrie a donc mené une enquête auprès des représentants des internes en psychiatrie de chaque subdivision et des coordonnateurs locaux du diplôme d’études spécialisées (DES) de psychiatrie. Ce travail, présenté pour la première fois, a pour but de décrire les dispositions médicales et universitaires prises pour les internes en souffrance et celles souhaitées. L’objectif final de cette étude est d’élaborer des recommandations nationales et consensuelles aidant à la prise en charge spécifique de ces étudiants. Le professeur Hardy apportera son regard avec sa double expertise de coordonnateur du DES de psychiatrie de Paris-IDF et de psychiatre intéressé par les troubles affectifs et les facteurs de risques psychosociaux. L’approche sociologique de Madame Penchaud viendra enrichir cette session où elle présentera une revue de la littérature en sciences sociales sur les motivations présidant au choix de la filière psychiatrique et proposera une analyse compréhensive de l’expérience et l’apprentissage professionnel des internes en psychiatrie.