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Cytokine-dependent mechanisms in the CNS have been implicated in the pathogenesis of depression. Interleukin-6 is upregulated in depressed patients and dowregulated by antidepressants. It is, however, unknown whether IL-6 is involved in the pathogenesis of depression. We subjected IL-6-deficient mice (IL-6(-/-)) to depression-related tests (learned helplessness, forced swimming, tail suspension, sucrose preference). We also investigated IL-6 in the hippocampus of stressed wild-type mice. IL-6(-/-) mice showed reduced despair in the forced swim, and tail suspension test, and enhanced hedonic behavior. Moreover, IL-6(-/-) mice exhibited resistance to helplessness. This resistance may be caused by the lack of IL-6, because stress increased IL-6 expression in wild-type hippocampi. This suggests that IL-6 is a component in molecular mechanisms in the pathogenesis of depression. IL-6(-/-) mice represent tools to study IL-6-dependent signaling pathways in the pathophysiology of depression in vivo. Moreover, these mice may support the screening of compounds for depression by altering cytokine-mediated signaling.

SSR180711 (4-bromophenyl 1,4diazabicyclo(3.2.2) nonane-4-carboxylate, monohydrochloride) is a selective alpha7 nicotinic receptor (n-AChR) partial agonist. Based on the purported implication of this receptor in cognitive deficits associated with schizophrenia, the present study assessed efficacy of SSR180711 (i.p. and p.o.) in different types of learning and memory involved in this pathology. SSR180711 enhanced episodic memory in the object recognition task in rats and mice (MED: 0.3 mg/kg), an effect mediated by the alpha7 n-AChR, as it was no longer seen in mice lacking this receptor. Efficacy was retained after repeated treatment (eight administrations over 5 days, 1 mg/kg), indicating lack of tachyphylaxia. SSR180711 also reversed (MED: 0.3 mg/kg) MK-801-induced deficits in retention of episodic memory in rats (object recognition). The drug reversed (MED: 0.3 mg/kg) selective attention impaired by neonatal phencyclidine (PCP) treatment and restored MK-801- or PCP-induced memory deficits in the Morris or linear maze (MED: 1-3 mg/kg). In neurochemical and electrophysiological correlates of antipsychotic drug action, SSR180711 increased extracellular levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex (MED: 1 mg/kg) and enhanced (3 mg/kg) spontaneous firing of retrosplenial cortex neurons in rats. Selectivity of SSR180711 was confirmed as these effects were abolished by methyllycaconitine (3 mg/kg, i.p. and 1 mg/kg, i.v., respectively), a selective alpha7 n-AChR antagonist. Additional antidepressant-like properties of SSR180711 were demonstrated in the forced-swimming test in rats (MED: 1 mg/kg), the maternal separation-induced ultrasonic vocalization paradigm in rat pups (MED: 3 mg/kg) and the chronic mild stress procedure in mice (10 mg/kg o.d. for 3 weeks). Taken together, these findings characterize SSR180711 as a promising new agent for the treatment of cognitive symptoms of schizophrenia. The antidepressant-like properties of SSR180711 are of added interest, considering the high prevalence of depressive symptoms in schizophrenic patients.

In vitro cell transformation assays (CTAs) have been shown to model important stages of in vivo carcinogenesis and have the potential to predict carcinogenicity in humans. Advantages of CTAs are their ability of revealing both genotoxic and non-genotoxic carcinogens while reducing both experimental costs and the number of animals used. The endpoint of the CTA is foci formation, and requires classification under light microscopy based on morphology. Thus current limitations for the wide adoption of the assay partially depend on a fair degree of subjectivity in foci scoring. An objective evaluation may be obtained after separating foci from background monolayer in the digital image, and quantifying values of statistical descriptors which are selected to capture eye-scored morphological features. The aim of this study was to develop statistical descriptors to be applied to transformed foci of BALB/c 3T3, which cover foci size, multilayering and invasive cell growth into the background monolayer. Proposed descriptors were applied to a database of 407 foci images to explore the numerical features, and to illustrate open problems and potential solutions., JRC.I.5-Systems Toxicology

Rat primary hepatocyte cultures have been used to study the effect of Benomyl alone or in combination with Pirimiphos-methyl. The results presented demonstrate that Benomyl alone is responsible for the microtubular disorganization in both a time- and dose-dependent manner, that the effect is reversible after the agent is removed, and that Benomyl is a potent glutathione-depleting agent. Pirimiphos-methyl, alone or combined with Benomyl had no effect on microtubule organization, but reinforced the decrease in glutathione.

Altered glucocorticoid receptor (GR) signaling is a postulated mechanism for the pathogenesis of major depression. To mimic the human situation of altered GR function claimed for depression, we generated mouse strains that underexpress or overexpress GR, but maintain the regulatory genetic context controlling the GR gene. To achieve this goal, we used the following: (1) GR-heterozygous mutant mice (GR+/-) with a 50% GR gene dose reduction, and (2) mice overexpressing GR by a yeast artificial chromosome resulting in a twofold gene dose elevation. GR+/-mice exhibit normal baseline behaviors but demonstrate increased helplessness after stress exposure, a behavioral correlate of depression in mice. Similar to depressed patients, GR+/-mice have a disinhibited hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system and a pathological dexamethasone/corticotropin-releasing hormone test. Thus, they represent a murine depression model with good face and construct validity. Overexpression of GR in mice evokes reduced helplessness after stress exposure, and an enhanced HPA system feedback regulation. Therefore, they may represent a model for a stress-resistant strain. These mouse models can now be used to study biological changes underlying the pathogenesis of depressive disorders. As a first potential molecular correlate for such changes, we identified a downregulation of BDNF protein content in the hippocampus of GR+/-mice, which is in agreement with the so-called neurotrophin hypothesis of depression.

The olfactory bulbectomy syndrome is thought to represent a rodent model for psychomotor agitated depression. While this model has been extensively characterized in rats, fewer studies have been conducted with mice. Therefore, the present study aimed at extending the characterization of the OBX-induced behavioral syndrome in mice, using tests like open field, novel object exploration, novel cage and T-maze learning. OBX mice exhibited hyperactivity in a brightly illuminated open field, and also in a novel home cage as well as in the T-maze. Furthermore, OBX mice demonstrated increased exploratory behavior in the novel object test and in the T-maze. The complex alterations described here with respect to locomotion and exploration are robust and can be achieved by relatively simple test procedures. The extended behavioral characterization of the murine OBX model may contribute in particular to the increasing need to test transgenic mice for the presence of depression-like behaviors.

The human carcinogenicity evaluation of chemicals has a great impact on public health. In vitro methods, such as the cell transformation assay (CTA), allow for a fast and reliable assessment of the carcinogenic potential of a chemical compound in comparison with the standard two-year bioassay. The scoring and classification of foci in selected cell lines is performed, after staining, by light microscopy. Foci can be separated into three classes: type I, which are scored as non-transformed, and types II and III that are considered to include fully transformed foci. However, in a number of cases, even an expert is uncertain about the attribution of a focus to a given class, due to its mixed or intermediate nature. Here, we suggest a simple approach to classifying mixed or intermediate foci by exploiting the quantitative information available from images, which is captured by statistical descriptors. A quantitative index is proposed, to describe the degree of dissimilarity of mixed and intermediate images to the three well-distinguished classes.

Dysregulations and dysfunctions of corticosteroids and their receptors have been implicated in the pathogenesis of stress-related disorders, in particular in depression. It is currently under debate, however, whether corticosteroid imbalances are a cause or rather a consequence of affective disorders. Corticosteroids exert their effects mainly by two receptors: glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) and mineralocorticoid receptors (MRs). We present here analyses made on several strains of mice with targeted mutations of corticosteroid receptors. The results help to understand how corticosteroid receptors regulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system. Furthermore, first behavioral analyses have indicated that corticosteroid receptor mutant mice show alterations in their emotional behavior. Certain mouse strains with specific alterations of GR or MR expression may represent genetic models of depression or at least have a predisposition to develop a depressive or a depression-resistant state upon exposure to stress. The corticosteroid receptor-regulated target genes to be identified in these models may code for proteins that could represent new drug-targets for the treatment of affective disorders.

Cell Transformation Assays (CTA) rely on the detection of phenotypic changes, namely foci, induced by chemicals (e.g., xenobiotics or candidate drugs) in mammalian cells such as C3H10T1/2 mouse fibroblasts. A focus is a cell colony and as such is made visible by standardized techniques of light microscopy. Foci exhibit a variety of morphological features, by which three "Types" have been defined. Types II and III consist of cells having undergone neoplastic transformation. The assignment of a focus to a Type is based on the evaluation of phenotypic features by a trained human expert. An automated, two-stage morphological classifier of foci is described herewith. Morphological descriptors are extracted from light microscope images by the "spectrum enhancement" algorithm, which separates structure from texture. Said descriptors are submitted to a classifier, the first stage of which is trained to discriminate transformed cells from normal ones and the 2nd stage to discriminate Type III from Type II. The classifier operating in recognition mode (on images not used for training) is satisfactory in terms of confusion matrix entries. The whole procedure is aimed at removing subjectivity from the scoring and classification of foci and thus make CTA a more powerful tool in carcinogenesis studies.

The Cell Transformation Assay (CTA) is one of the promising in vitro methods used to predict human carcinogenicity. The neoplastic phenotype is monitored in suitable cells by the formation of foci and observed by light microscopy after staining. Foci exhibit three types of morphological alterations: Type I, characterized by partially transformed cells, and Types II and III considered to have undergone neoplastic transformation. Foci recognition and scoring have always been carried visually by a trained human expert. In order to automatically classify foci images one needs to implement some image understanding algorithm. Herewith, two such algorithms are described and compared by performance. The supervised classifier (as described in previous articles) relies on principal components analysis embedded in a training feedback loop to process the morphological descriptors extracted by "spectrum enhancement" (SE). The unsupervised classifier architecture is based on the "partitioning around medoids" and is applied to image descriptors taken from histogram moments (HM). Preliminary results suggest the inadequacy of the HMs as image descriptors as compared to those from SE. A justification derived from elementary arguments of real analysis is provided in the Appendix.

Essential and non-essential metals can affect vital cellular processes, when over-accumulated within the cells. For this reason, cells have evolved multiple protein sensors, transporters, and other type of proteins to regulate and control free metal homeostasis. Among these, metallothioneins (MT) and ZnT-1 transporter play a key role in the regulation of free Zn concentrations. Herewith, MT expression in Zn (170 lM) and Cd (0.1 and 10 lM) exposed HepG2 cells is analyzed and compared. In addition, the modulation and localization of the membrane transporter ZnT-1 has been investigated. MT-I and MT-II were up-regulated in response to both Zn and Cd exposure and, as expected, Cd represented the most potent inducer. Namely, 0.1 lM Cd was able to up-regulate MT-I, and -II in a way comparable to 170 lM Zn. This is in agreement with MT general function of metal-chelating protein, acting with higher tolerance to essential metals than to non-essential ones. ZnT-1 protein, a plasma membrane specific Zn transporter, was up-regulated as well by both Zn and Cd, although in the same way. Immunofluorescence technique provided evidence that high levels of ZnT-1 measured by biochemical techniques, are related to an increased localization of the transporter at the plasma membrane., JRC.DDG.I.4-Molecular biology and genomics

For a long time acute eye irritation has been assessed by means of the DRAIZE rabbit test, the limitations of which are known. Alternative tests based on in vitro models have been proposed. This work focuses on the "reconstituted human corneal epithelium" ( R-HCE ), which resembles the corneal epithelium of the human eye by thickness, morphology and marker expression. Testing a substance on R-HCE involves a variety of methods. Herewith quantitative morphological analysis is applied to optical microscope images of R-HCE cross sections resulting from exposure to benzalkonium chloride ( BAK ). The short term objectives and the first results are the analysis and classification of said images. Automated analysis relies on feature extraction by the spectrum-enhancement algorithm, which is made sensitive to anisotropic morphology, and classification based on principal components analysis. The winning strategy has been the separate analysis of the apical and basal layers, which carry morphological information of different types. R-HCE specimens have been ranked by gross damage. The onset of early damage has been detected and an R-HCE specimen exposed to a low BAK dose has been singled out from the negative and positive control. These results provide a proof of principle for the automated classification of the specimens of interest on a purely morphological basis by means of the spectrum enhancement algorithm.

Diagnostic images at all biological scales benefit from quantitative morphological analysis which can lead to their classification and recognition. With reference to an image from an optical microscope, quantitative morphology consists of extracting from the raw image, by a suitable algorithm, some numerical indicators or "descriptors". The latter replace the image and represent it for subsequent analysis by algorithms capable of: classification, recognition, feature extraction and other higher level functions. Herewith the extraction of morphological descriptors relies on the "spectrum enhancement" algorithm: the discrete Fourier transform of the image undergoes some nonlinear operatons and comparison with a model power spectral density. As a result the graph of a function of wavenumber, the enhanced spectrum, is obtained, which carries information about the structure and texture of the image. Enhanced spectra are submitted to a classifier based on multivariate statistics, which can be trained, validated and applied to recognize new images. The whole procedure will be illustrated by applications at different scales: a) (sub-cell) cytoskeletal structures altered by xenobiotics; b) (colony) cell colonies ("foci") from in vitro neoplastic transformation assays; c) (tissue) cross sections of reconstituted human corneal epithelia. The results of diagnostic and pathological interest, which will be presented, include the quantitative estimation of morphological alterations, dose-response relationships and recovery from damage. The same paradigm can apply to images acquired by different (optical) instruments and is intended for integration with other methods, the eventual goal being the high content analysis of biological data.

Latin America's lost decade seems to be definitely over. During the first half of the 1990's, GDP growth was higher than during the 1980's as a whole, at the same time than inflation was substantially reduced and poverty indicators progressively improved. These common trend tend to hide, however, important cross-country differences in the timing and in the nature of the structural reforms and of the stabilization policies that were at the origins of this process, and therefore of their macroeconomic and social impacts. The purpose of this paper is to study the recent experience of four among the main countries of the continent: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. I start describing their macroeconomic policies and performances since the beginning of the 1990's. Then, I analize the impacts of the macroeconomic behaviour on the labor market and on income distribution. Finally, I try to investigate which kind of policies would be apropriated in order to reduce poverty faster then during the last years.

Latin America´s lost decade seems to be definitely over. During the first half of the 1990´s, GDP growth was higher than during the 1980´s as a whole, at the same time than inflation was substantially reduced and poverty indicators progressively improved. These common trend tend to hide, however, important cross-country differences in the timing and in the nature of the structural reforms and of the stabilization policies that were at the origins of this process, and therefore of their macroeconomic and social impacts. The purpose of this paper is to study the recent experience of four among the main countries of the continent: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico. I start describing their macroeconomic policies and performances since the beginning of the 1990´s. Then, I analize the impacts of the macroeconomic behaviour on the labor market and on income distribution. Finally, I try to investigate which kind of policies would be apropriated in order to reduce poverty faster then during the last years. A "década perdida" já era. Graças às reformas estruturais e ao êxito das políticas de estabilização empreendidas nos últimos anos, a economia latino-americana cresceu, durante a primeira metade da década de 90, mais do que durante a de 80 como um todo, ao mesmo tempo em que reduzia substancialmente sua taxa média de inflação e registrava progressos no combate à pobreza. Estas tendências comuns tendem a ocultar, todavia, importantes diferenças nas condições iniciais, no ritmo e na natureza das reformas que foram implementadas nos diferentes países do continente — e, portanto, em suas conseqüências macroeconômicas e sociais. Neste artigo procura-se, primeiramente, analisar a experiência recente de quatro países: Argentina, Brasil, Chile e México, com ênfase na diversidade do timing e da profundidade das reformas e das políticas de estabilização implementadas. Em seguida, estudam-se os impactos destas medidas sobre o desempenho macroeconômico, o mercado de trabalho e a distribuição de renda. Finalmente, parte-se para a formulação de diretrizes de políticas que possam vir a reduzir a pobreza mais rapidamente do que a registrada no período recente.

L’acidité, observée dans ses manifestations littéraires, peut être abordée selon une double dimension : une tentative de corrosion (« effet vitriol » par l’écrivain) associée à une réception joyeuse (« effet citron » pour le lecteur). Quatre propositions générales en rendront compte ici avec des exemples empruntés à Baudelaire et Barbey d’Aurevilly., Acidity, observed in its literary manifestations, can be approached in a two-fold manner : an attempt at corrosion (a “vitriolic effect” produced by the writer) which is linked to a joyful reception (a “citrus effect” for the reader). Four general propositions demonstrate this, with examples taken from Baudelaire and Barbey d’Aurevilly.

The sigma(1) (sigma(1)) receptor exerts a potent neuromodulatory role in the brain with relevant consequences in memory processes, response to stress, depression and pharmacodependence. Its precise endogenous ligand is not yet identified but the sigma(1) receptor appears to be one target for the nongenomic rapid effects of neuroactive steroids in the brain. The aim of the present study was to establish whether differences in sigma(1) receptor-mediated behaviours could be observed among mouse strains, in relation with differences in either sigma(1) receptor expression or steroid levels. The sigma(1)-receptor immunohistochemical distribution appeared similar between Swiss and C57BL/6 strains in all the brain structures examined. The levels of in vivo [(3)H](+)-SKF-10 047 binding to sigma(1) receptors were lower in Swiss than in C57BL/6. Adrenalectomy/castration significantly increased [(3)H](+)-SKF-10 047 binding only in Swiss. The behavioural efficacy of the selective sigma( 1) agonists igmesine and PRE-084 -- reversion of the scopolamine-induced amnesia in the passive avoidance test; diminution of the immobility duration in the forced swimming test -- were significantly higher in C57BL/6 than in Swiss. Steroid levels were measured in the brain in basal conditions and after stress. C57BL/6 mice presented in both conditions, the lowest progesterone levels, this steroid acting as an endogenous sigma(1) antagonist. Collectively, the results suggested that strain differences in neuroactive steroid and particularly, progesterone, biosynthesis and sensitivity may contribute to the differential behavioural efficacy of sigma(1)-receptor ligands. Noteworthy, these observations are coherent with strain differences observed in the intensity of cocaine-induced reward properties, known to critically involve the sigma(1) receptor.

Carcinogenesis is a multi-step process involving genetic alterations and non-genotoxic mechanisms. The in vitro cell transformation assay allows the monitoring of the neoplastic phenotype by foci formation in suitable cells (e.g. C3H10T1/2 mouse embryo fibroblasts) showing aberrant morphology of massive build-up, polar and multi-layered densely stained cells. The classification of transformed foci in C3H cells relies on light microscopy scoring by a trained human expert based on standard rules. This procedure is time-consuming and prone, in some cases, to subjectivity, thereby leading to possible over- or under-estimation of the carcinogenic potential of tested compounds. Herewith we describe the in vitro neoplastic transformation induced by B[a]P and CdCl2, and the development of a foci classifier based on image analysis and statistical classification. The image analysis system, which relies on 'spectrum enhancement', is quantitative and extracts descriptors of foci texture and structure. The statistical classification method is based on the Random Forest algorithm. We obtained a classifier trained by using expert's supervision with a 20% classification error. The proposed method could serve as a basis to automate the in vitro cell transformation assay.