Hepatocytes cocultured with Sertoli cells in bioreactor favors Sertoli barrier tightness in rat.

The lack of a reliable in vitro system to assess reprotoxicity is an emerging problem in the context of European law for Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH, 2007), as it requires a reduction in animal utilization for testing. Furthermore, in vitro reprotoxicological tests would be more relevant and greatly improved by integrating both hepatic metabolism and the blood-testis barrier. Here, we took advantage of an integrated insert in a dynamic microfluidic platform (IIDMP) to co-cultivate hepatocytes in biochip and Sertoli cells in the bicameral chamber. This microfluidic tool has been previously demonstrated to be helpful in cell function and/or quality improvement. We demonstrate that permeability of the Sertoli barrier is reduced by dynamic coculture in our system. Exometabolomics analysis reveals that interactions between hepatocytes and Sertoli cells may have been mediated by the polyamines increase and/or mid-chain fatty acid decrease in the circulating medium. These metabolic changes may be involved in permeability reduction by contributing to modifying junction protein quantity and localization. The present study gives an example of IIDMP as an in vitro partitioning/transport model for cell culture and toxicological testing. Further, based on both our previous results using an intestinal-hepatic cell coculture and the present study, IIDMP seems to be well-suited for (i) assessing the dose-response effect of chemicals within the rodent or human male reproductive tract, and (ii) improving the quality of reprotoxicological assays by including hepatic metabolism. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

[Clinical research in radiotherapy oncology in private sector: A reality with a possible future?] / Recherche clinique en oncologie radiothérapie dans le secteur libéral : une réalité avec un avenir possible ?

Clinical research is one of the activities of medical practice, particularly in oncology including radiotherapy. It was developed in the public sector and then in the liberal sector, in compliance with regulatory institutions, resulting in a doubling of inclusions over the last decade. Setting up and developing clinical research in the liberal sector are major axes in terms of interests: improving the proposition of care, access to innovation, to keep patients, intellectual stimulation, encouraging recruitment, activity of scientific publications, financial valorisation, quality of visibility… An inventory on French national territory via the national union of iadiotherapists oncologists (SNRO) and the club of liberal oncologists (Colib) is reported in this article, as well as examples of structuring and organization.