Cathepsin S, a new pruritus biomarker in clinical dandruff/seborrhoeic dermatitis evaluation.

Dandruff/seborrhoeic dermatitis (D/SD) is characterized by Malassezia colonization, impaired barrier function with subsequent inflammation, resulting in dandruff and itching. Histamine is one of the biomarkers of pruritus now widely used in treatment efficacy trials. The exact mechanism leading to histamine release and pruritus is not yet clear.

Quantification of Demodex folliculorum by PCR in rosacea and its relationship to skin innate immune activation.

The aim of this study is to quantify D. folliculorum colonisation in rosacea subtypes and age-matched controls and to determine the relationship between D. folliculorum load, rosacea subtype and skin innate immune system activation markers.

Living on three time scales: the dynamics of plasma cell and antibody populations illustrated for hepatitis a virus.

Understanding the mechanisms involved in long-term persistence of humoral immunity after natural infection or vaccination is challenging and crucial for further research in immunology, vaccine development as well as health policy. Long-lived plasma cells, which have recently been shown to reside in survival niches in the bone marrow, are instrumental in the process of immunity induction and persistence. We developed a mathematical model, assuming two antibody-secreting cell subpopulations (short- and long-lived plasma cells), to analyze the antibody kinetics after HAV-vaccination using data from two long-term follow-up studies.

Epidermal kinetic alterations required to generate the psoriatic phenotype: a reappraisal.

Objectives: Although there have been major advances in understanding immunopathogenesis of psoriasis, the basic processes causing psoriatic morphology remain to be identified.

Materials And Methods: Our group has designed a systematic review of studies (1962-2009) on keratinocyte kinetics in psoriasis. We obtained data from MEDLINE, PubMed, Current Contents, reference lists and specialist textbooks.

Seventy-five years of estimating the force of infection from current status data.

The force of infection, describing the rate at which a susceptible person acquires an infection, is a key parameter in models estimating the infectious disease burden, and the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of infectious disease prevention. Since Muench formulated the first catalytic model to estimate the force of infection from current status data in 1934, exactly 75 years ago, several authors addressed the estimation of this parameter by more advanced statistical methods, while applying these to seroprevalence and reported incidence/case notification data. In this paper we present an historical overview, discussing the relevance of Muench's work, and we explain the wide array of newer methods with illustrations on pre-vaccination serological survey data of two airborne infections: rubella and parvovirus B19.

Deeply gapped vegetation patterns: on crown/root allometry, criticality and desertification.

The dynamics of vegetation is formulated in terms of the allometric and structural properties of plants. Within the framework of a general and yet parsimonious approach, we focus on the relationship between the morphology of individual plants and the spatial organization of vegetation populations. So far, in theoretical as well as in field studies, this relationship has received only scant attention.

Origin of threshold behaviour in psoriatic skin.

The mechanisms that lead to the psoriatic morphology are not fully elucidated. Several lines of evidence suggest that the positive feedback between keratinocytes and immunocytes plays a key role in the development of the lesions. On the other hand, little information is available on the negative regulatory controls that maintain a new homoeostasis level in psoriatic skin.

Molecular characterization of inflammation and Staphylococcus aureus colonization of involved skin of atopic dermatitis patients. A non-invasive approach.

Atopic dermatitis (AD) is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory disease mainly stemming from a genetic predisposition that leads to hypersensitivity to environmental factors and a common involvement of Staphylococcus aureus (SA) colonization. The aim of this work was to propose a new non-invasive approach to enumerate the genes coding for the toxins of SA in atopic skin samples. In parallel, the study aimed to evaluate the change in AD through 3 markers of the inflammatory response: IL-8, IL-1RA/IL-1alpha and IL-18.

Spatial decoupling of facilitation and competition at the origin of gapped vegetation patterns.

Spatially periodic vegetation patterns, forming gaps, bands, labyrinths, or spots, are characteristic of arid and semiarid landscapes. Self-organization models can explain this variety of structures within a unified conceptual framework. All these models are based on the interplay of positive and negative effects of plants on soil water, but they can be divided according to whether they assume the interactions to be mediated by water redistribution through runoff/diffusion or by plants' organs.

Interferon-based treatment of chronic hepatitis C.

The treatment of patients with chronic hepatitis C has rapidly evolved in the past 10 years centered on the use of interferon alpha 2 as an antiviral and immunomodulatory agent against hepatitis C virus. Firstly used as a monotherapy associated with a deceiving long-term efficacy, interferon alpha was then combined with ribavirin, a nucleoside analog with large antiviral properties. Combination of both drugs dramatically improved the efficacy of treatment with 50% of patients reaching a sustained viral response, characterized by the final eradication of the virus from the infected individual.

In vitro percutaneous absorption and in vivo stratum corneum distribution of an organic and a mineral sunscreen.

Sunscreens, whose main function is to protect the skin against the harmful effects of solar irradiation, should remain at the skin surface or impregnate the first layers of the stratum corneum only and not penetrate into the underlying living tissue. The goal of this work was to assess the penetration of titanium dioxide (TiO(2)) and methylene bis-benzotriazoyl tetramethylbutylphenol (MBBT), included in a broad-spectrum sunscreen formulation, into human skin in vivo, using the tape stripping method, and in vitro, using a compartmental approach. An additional objective was to propose an easy and minimally invasive approach to determining the percutaneous uptake of sunscreens following topical application.

Duodenal intraepithelial lymphocytosis during Helicobacter pylori infection is reduced by antibiotic treatment.

Aim: To evaluate clinical, biological and immunological features of patients with increased duodenal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs), and its relation to Helicobacter pylori (HP) and coeliac disease (CD).

Methods: We have studied all patients accrued over a 4-year period with increased duodenal IELs. Those patients were recalled for biological and immunological evaluation and a second endoscopy.

Short-term effects of prone position in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients with severe acute hypoxemic and hypercapnic respiratory failure.

Objective: To assess the short-term effects of prone positioning (PP) in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients with severe hypoxemic and hypercapnic respiratory failure requiring invasive mechanical ventilation.

Design And Setting: Prospective observational study in the general intensive care unit of a university-affiliated hospital.

Patients: 11 consecutive COPD patients with persistent hypoxemia (PaO2/FIO2 < or = 200 mmHg with FIO2 > or = 0.

Pleiotrophin mediates the neurotrophic effect of cyclic AMP on dopaminergic neurons: analysis of suppression-subtracted cDNA libraries and confirmation in vitro.

To better understand the particular vulnerability of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons to toxins or gene mutations causing parkinsonism, we have taken advantage of a primary cell culture system in which these neurons die selectively. Antimitotic agents, such as cytosine arabinoside or cAMP, prevent the death of the neurons by arresting astrocyte proliferation. To identify factors implicated in either the death of the dopaminergic neurons or in the neuroprotective effect of cAMP, we constructed cDNA libraries enriched by subtractive hybridization and suppressive PCR in transcripts that are preferentially expressed in either control or cAMP-treated cultures.

Localized vegetation patches: a self-organized response to resource scarcity.

We show that spatial self-organization allows vegetation to survive greater resource limitation. Isolated vegetation patches observed in nutrient-poor territories of South America and West Africa are interpreted as localized structures arising from the bistability between the bare state and the patchy vegetation state.

Effect of seasonal host reproduction on host-macroparasite dynamics.

The impact of seasonal host reproduction on the population dynamics of host-macroparasite interactions is considered. We modify the classic Anderson and May model so that parameters associated with host reproduction are periodic functions of time with a period corresponding to a year. This allows us to compare our findings with those already well documented.

Automated image analyzing system for the quantitative study of living cells in culture.

A fully automated image analyzing system was developed for the quantitative study of cells in culture. It was able to count cells, to classify cells according to their morphological characteristics and to follow cell culture development. A specific procedure was designed to process Hoffman modulation contrast images.

Is the vulnerability of neurons in the substantia nigra of patients with Parkinson's disease related to their neuromelanin content?

The contribution of neuromelanin (NM) to the pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease (PD) has long been suspected. In particular, a correlation has been reported between the estimated cell loss in the mesencephalic dopaminergic cell groups and the percentage of NM-pigmented neurons in these cell groups. To test whether the amount of pigment per cell is a critical factor or whether the presence of NM within a neuron is sufficient to account for the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons, the NM content was measured in each neuron from representative sections throughout the ventral mesencephalon of four controls subjects and four patients with PD.