Analysis of Phagocytosis in the Drosophila Ovary.

Programmed cell death (PCD) is essential for health and development. Generally, the last step of PCD is clearance, or engulfment, by phagocytes. Engulfment can be broken down into five basic steps: attraction of the phagocyte, recognition of the dying cell, internalization, phagosome maturation, and acidification of the engulfed material.

Polarization of the epithelial layer and apical localization of integrins are required for engulfment of apoptotic cells in the Drosophila ovary.

Inefficient clearance of dead cells or debris by epithelial cells can lead to or exacerbate debilitating conditions such as retinitis pigmentosa, macular degeneration, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma. Despite the importance of engulfment by epithelial cells, little is known about the molecular changes that are required within these cells. The misregulation of integrins has previously been associated with disease states, suggesting that a better understanding of the regulation of receptor trafficking could be key to treating diseases caused by defects in phagocytosis.

The primary process and the unconscious: experimental evidence supporting two psychoanalytic presuppositions.

The authors report on two experiments designed to test an important feature of the primary process: unconscious categorisation by attributes rather than by relations. These experiments were designed to provide support, independently of the clinical situation, for the presupposition of a psychological unconscious and for the presupposition that unconscious mentation is organised along primary-process lines. Their results were encouraging.