[Accompanying the search for origins, a legislated but complex and delicate task].

For a long time, France has allowed women to ask for the secrecy of their identity during childbirth, but this can generate questions in the child who has become an adult. The legislator therefore intervened in 2002 so that women who prefer to give birth secretly can benefit from specific support and are invited to leave information about their identity if they wish.

Identification of fibronectins in peritoneal macrophages during the phagocytosis of Brucella. An immunocytochemical study by electron microscopy.

Fibronectin is a high-molecular-weight molecule whose opsonic properties favor the endocytosis of bacteria and particulate material. Using immunolabeling with anti-fibronectin IgGs coupled with peroxidase, we have looked for its localization in peritoneal macrophages from antigenically stimulated and nonstimulated mice. Ultrastructural location of fibronectin in macrophages sheds light on several points.

Response of the lymphoid organs of the mouse to the peptidoglycan of a gram-positive bacterium (Streptococcus pyogenes).

The response of the lymphoid organs of the mouse to the injection of a Gram-positive (Streptococcus pyogenes) bacterial peptidoglycan (PGL) has been investigated by several complementary techniques. Special cares were brought to: a) the extraction mode and the characterization of the bacterial fraction, b) the sanitary and microbiological status of the mice, and c) the lack of biologically active contaminants, even at a trace level. In these conditions, the local reaction at the site of inoculation was very moderate, transient and not very distinctive.

Flow cytometric prescreening of cervical smears.

One-parameter (nuclear DNA) and two-parameter (nuclear DNA and protein or cellular light scatter) measurements of cervical smears were performed using an ICP 11 and a cytofluorograf 4800 respectively. A total of about 1000 cases was analyzed. For the estimation of nuclear DNA alone two fluorochromes were tested (ethidium bromide (EB) and mithramycin (MMC)) combined with three different methods of cell preparation.

Peripheral nervous system involvement in experimental tuberculosis.

Following intravenous injection of mycobacteria in the mouse the bacilli are regularly found in the peripheral nervous system after the 5th day. The peripheral nerves and autonomic ganglia are involved at the level of the perineural cells and the sheath of Schwann. When the organisms are of low virulence (BCG, Mycobacterium intracellulare) the development of the nodules is limited.