A stable proportion of Purkinje cell inputs from parallel fibers are silent during cerebellar maturation.

Cerebellar Purkinje neurons integrate information transmitted at excitatory synapses formed by granule cells. Although these synapses are considered essential sites for learning, most of them appear not to transmit any detectable electrical information and have been defined as silent. It has been proposed that silent synapses are required to maximize information storage capacity and ensure its reliability, and hence to optimize cerebellar operation.

Direct Readout of Neural Stem Cell Transgenesis with an Integration-Coupled Gene Expression Switch.

Stable genomic integration of exogenous transgenes is essential in neurodevelopmental and stem cell studies. Despite tools driving increasingly efficient genomic insertion with DNA vectors, transgenesis remains fundamentally hindered by the impossibility of distinguishing integrated from episomal transgenes. Here, we introduce an integration-coupled On genetic switch, iOn, which triggers gene expression upon incorporation into the host genome through transposition, thus enabling rapid and accurate identification of integration events following transfection with naked plasmids.

Impact of pharmacist and clinician dual intervention on prescribed benzodiazepines in prisoner patients: a retrospective study.

High-dose benzodiazepine (BDZs) represents an important risk factor for dependence, particularly in a prison environment. In Lyon's prison, BDZs and/or opioid maintenance treatment are often prescribed to patients with mental disorders. The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the impact of psychiatrist and pharmacist collaboration on reducing the BDZs dose prescribed to prisoner patients.

[The value of the administration of prostaglandin E2 on the biodegradable support of the maturation of the cervix uteri and the induction of labor].

We report the results of a prospective randomized study concerning the effects of prostaglandin E2 on cervical ripening and/or induction of labour. Between August 1988 and April 1989, 100 women underwent induction of labour for medical reasons. These women were divided into 4 groups.

Cervical intraepithelial neoplasia III treatments by carbon dioxide laser.

162 women underwent one or more carbon dioxide laser conservative treatments for lesions of severe dysplasia and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN III) between 1982 and 1987. Therapy involved destruction of lesions by vaporisation in 45% of cases and excisional conisation in 55% (32% performed with a hand-held apparatus and 23% colposcopically guided). Rates of cure were, respectively, 93, 96.

[Birth before 33 weeks gestational age. The significance of in utero-to-birth transfer in the Department of Perinatology].

Systematic transfer of any woman presenting a high risk of delivery before 33 weeks of amenorrhea, for birth within a Perinatology department which was 5 advocated since 1985 (especially at 31 and 32 weeks of amenorrhea) in order to minimize the neurological consequences of the haemodynamic disorders induced by the transfer of these premature babies, has permitted to increase to 40 live newborns without any severe sequelae. This improved management, noticed in three departments (121 PNB in 1988, or a 73 p. cent progression in 4 years), must now take place as early as the 25th week and before the stage of imminent birth, in order for the couple mother-fetus to take advantage, in the same location, of physicians (obstetricians and pediatricians) and technical means suitable for this rare and severe pathology that is prematurity.

[Endosalpingosis or microcystic and proliferating glandular inclusion disease of the genital tract and peritoneum. Apropos of 6 cases].

Endosalpingosis, defined by the presence in an ectopic site of epithelium comparable to that of the tubal mucosa, is not a well-known entity. In reference to 6 cases of our department, the authors have been able to assess this lesion. Clinical manifestations and laboratory tests offer no arguments.

[Treatment of upper genital infections in women. Multicenter study of the comparative efficacy and tolerance of an amoxicillin-clavulanic acid combination and of a triple antibiotic combination].

Eighty-two patients with laparoscopically confirmed salpingitis were randomly divided into two groups in a multicentre and prospective trial. Single drug therapy with the amoxicillin-clavulanic acid combination was used in 42 patients (group A). The other 40 patients were given a combination of penicillin, aminoside and metronidazole (group B).

[Endometriosis and fertilization in vitro. Apropos of 40 cycles].

The physiopathology and the role of endometriosis in infertility is still unclear. The use of in vitro fertilization (IVF) could be a good model for the understanding of etio-pathology and treatment when fecundity is desired. We compare results of IVF procedure in patients with endometriosis after ovulation induction with clomiphene-HMG (group 1) and Gn-Rh analog's short administration using regimen and HMG (group 2).

[Conservative treatment of grade 3 intra-epithelial cervical neoplasms. Comparative study of CO2 laser vaporization, laser conization and cold scalpel conization].

Carbon dioxide laser was used in 79% of the 141 conservative treatments carried out for grade 3 cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN III) between the years 1982 and 1986 (41% vaporized and 38% coned out by using the laser as against 21% that were treated by scalpel conisation. The mean age of the women treated in this way by the laser was low (28.5 years of age and 32.

[Circulating anticoagulants and pregnancy: a risky combination].

In the last ten years the relationship between the presence of lupus type anticoagulants in the blood and some obstetrical complications, in particular spontaneous abortions, repeated fetal deaths in utero and intra-uterine growth retardation, has been well documented. A study of the literature shows that there were only twenty live-born children out of 280 pregnancies in 71 women who had the lupus type anticoagulant factor. The presence of the factor in high levels in a pregnant woman was seen to be of poor prognostic significance for the obstetric outcome.

[Prenatal diagnosis of pulmonary hypoplasia camptodactyly syndrome. Hypothesis concerning the origin of hydramnios].

Camptodactyly and pulmonary hypoplasia syndrome was described for the first time in 1974. Today 15 cases have been found. None were subject to a prenatal diagnosis as any ultrasonography.

[The onset of human labor].

The authors reviewed the literature in order to try to work out the different mechanisms that are responsible for labour starting. A role seems to be played by the decidua of the uterus, by the placenta and by the fetal membranes as well as the very important role of prostaglandin synthesis. It does seem as though there is no single factor that is important for starting labour.

[Contraception using an intrauterine device inserted 1 month after delivery].

The authors report their experience of mechanical contraception using an intra-uterine device placed one month after delivery. The fact that perforation did not occur and there were no serious infectious complications, as well as that the method was well tolerated, that there was only 4.7% per year expulsions, and few failures (Pearl 2.

[Electromicroscopy of the nerve structures in human myometrium at term (author's transl)].

The authors describe the ultrastructure of myelinated and nonmyelinated nerve fibres as seen in human myometrium at the end of pregnancy. The nerve ending looks degenerate and is found in close contact with a structure that is probably muscular. This ultrastructural appearance corresponds to the quantitative levels of noradrenaline found in the tissues at the end of pregnancy which show that the uterus becomes depleted of catecholamines.