Watchfrog (France)

Une part importante des ressources souterraines du Nord de la France est contaminee en perchlorates. Cette publication presente les resultats d’une etude visant a mesurer les effets de perturbation endocrinienne d’eaux souterraines contaminees, et a evaluer l’impact d’un traitement d’elimination des perchlorates par resine echange d’ions specifique. Ces effets sont evalues par le biais de biomarqueurs mesurant l’activite de perturbation du systeme thyroidien developpes par la societe Watchfrog. Cette etude est l’une des composantes d’un travail plus large mene par les communautes d’agglomerations du Douaisis, d’Henin-Carvin, de Lens-Lievin, de la communaute urbaine d’Arras et Veolia pour comprendre l’origine des perchlorates dans les eaux souterraines du Nord-Pas-de-Calais (France) et definir des moyens de gestions adaptes.

Xenopus is a well proven model for a wide variety of developmental studies, including cell lineage. Cell lineage in Xenopus has largely been addressed by injection of tracer molecules or by micro-dissection elimination of blastomeres. Here we describe a genetic method for cell ablation based on the use of tBid, a direct activator of the mitochondrial apoptotic pathway. In mammalian cells, cross-talk between the main apoptotic pathways (the mitochondrial and the death domain protein pathways) involve the pro-death protein BID, the active form of which, tBID, results from protease truncation and translocation to mitochondria. In transgenic Xenopus, restricting tBID expression to the lens-forming cells enables the specific ablation of the lens without affecting the development of other eye structures. Thus, overexpression of tBid can be used in vivo as a tool to eliminate a defined cell population by apoptosis in a developing organism and to evaluate the degree of autonomy or the inductive effects of a specific tissue during embryonic development.