Proteomics in Ménière disease

Ménière's disease (MD) is a disorder of the inner ear characterized by an insidious onset and aspecific symptoms, such as dizziness, vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss, that may become very debilitating. The presence of endolymphatic hydrops is a common feature in MD patients, but the pathophysiology is still largely unknown. In this study, we have used a proteomics‐driven approach to identify potential biomarkers of MD. To this end, plasma was obtained from whole blood of 16 individuals previously diagnosed as suffering from MD and compared to plasma from healthy donors. A depletion of the highly abundant proteins (i.e., albumin, IgG, transferrin, etc.) was performed in order to enhance the chance of detection of the less represented ones, therefore reducing the noise‐background. Two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis, followed by in‐gel tryptic digestion of the selected spots and LC‐MS/MS analysis, allowed us to identify a set of proteins whose expression appears to be differentially modulated in patients versus controls. In particular: complement factor H and B, fibrinogen alpha and gamma chains, beta‐actin and pigment epithelium derived factor are over expressed; on the other hand, the levels of beta‐2 glycoprotein‐1, vitamin D binding protein and apolipoprotein‐1 are significantly decreased in the plasma of MD‐affected individuals. Even though preliminary and not necessarily linked directly to the molecular pathogenesis of the disease, our original findings suggest that a molecular signature, represented by the plasma protein profile previously described, might represent a potentially powerful, innovative and not invasive tool for early diagnosis and clinical management of MD patients. J. Cell. Physiol. 227: 308–312, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Utilisation préhistorique de la technique minière d’abattage au feu dans le district cuprifère de Cabrières (Hérault)

Fire-setting to open up mines has been used on hard rock since prehistoric times. In the copper-mining district of Cabrières, the existence of metre-sized spherical or sub-spherical cavities, sometimes spaced along the same vertical in an ore seam, has usually been ascribed to this method 〚12〛, 〚13〛, 〚20〛. Two AMS ¹⁴C dating of micro-charcoal found in dolomite and of burnt ore breccias related to extraction in these cavities give the ages 3830 ± 40 BP, cal BC 2340–2130 and 3900 ± 40 BP, cal BC 2480–2280, which is the first evidence in France of the use of fire-setting in prehistoric mines.     

Observations sur l'hérédité du caractère „Pois à trois cosses” et du caractère „Pois chenille”

Sans résumé     

Caractères taxinomiques et spécificité dans le genreAsplanchna (Rotifère)

A comparative analysis of eight characters in two clones ofA. brightwelli and a clone ofA. intermedia, fed withParamecium orBrachionus, is made to determine the intraclonal, interclonal and interspecific variations in this complex of species.The trophi morphology appears the most species specific criterium whereas the other features (size of males, diameter and ornamentation of resting eggs, nuclear number in syncytial glands) show variability, either genetic or related to environmental conditions. The variation observed in the ornamentation of resting eggs and in the nuclear number of vitellogen was distributed along a continuous gradient.

     

Un Mésosuchien ziphodonte dans l'Éocène supérieurde La Livinière (Hérault,France)

Crocodilian remains collected at the turn of the centuryin the early Bartonian locality of La Livinière (Hérault, southern France) belong to a ziphodont mesosuchian. They include compressed, serrated teeth, primitive jugals, amphicoelous vertebrae, dermal scutes, and elongated, slender limb bones. The systematic position of this animal is difficult to determine, but it is more reminiscent of some forms from the upper Cretaceous of South America than of the Tertiary Sebecidae. It may be related to Iberosuchus, a ziphodont mesosuchian from the Eocene of the Iberian peninsula. Its peculiar limb bones confirm the terrestrial habits of ziphodont crocodilians.