[The radiolabeled blood cell: Finding a legal qualification].

Radiolabelling of blood cells is a technique commonly used as a diagnostic tool in nuclear medicine; it has never been legally defined. This lack of legal status is a factor of uncertainty for both patients and health care professionals. The aim of this work was to identify what could be the legal nature of the radiolabelled blood cells by comparing their constitutive elements to the various existing legal categories applicable, according to the law applicable to living organisms as well as the regulations for other health products.

An improved non-denaturing method for the purification of spiralin, the main membrane lipoprotein of the pathogenic bacteria Spiroplasma melliferum.

Spiralin is the most abundant protein of several species of spiroplasmas, helical, motile bacteria pathogenic for arthropods and plants. This amphiphilic protein is anchored to the outer face of the plasma membrane by a lipoylated N-terminal cysteine. Although spiroplasma pathogenicity in mammals is controversial, it was shown that spiralin is highly immunogenic and endowed with immunomodulatory activity.