Time course modifications in organotypic culture of human neuroretina

The purpose of this study was to characterize organ culture of human neuroretina and to establish survival and early degeneration patterns of neural and glial cells. Sixteen neuroretina explants were prepared from 2 postmortem eyes of 2 individuals. Four explants were used as fresh retina controls, and 12 were evaluated at 3, 6, and 9 days of culture. Neuroretina explants (5 × 5 mm) were cultured in Transwell® dishes with the photoreceptor layer facing the supporting membrane. Culture medium (Neurobasal A-based) was maintained in contact with the membrane beneath the explant. Cryostat and ultrathin sections were prepared for immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy. Neuroretinal modifications were evaluated after toluidine blue staining and after immunostaining for neuronal and glial cell markers. Ultrastructural changes were analyzed by electron microscopy. From 0 to 9 days in culture, there was progressive retinal degeneration, including early pyknosis of photoreceptor nuclei, cellular vacuolization in the ganglion cell layer, decrease of both plexiform layer thicknesses, disruption and truncation of photoreceptor outer segments (OS), and marked reduction in the number of nuclei at both nuclear layers where the cells were less densely packed. At 3 days there was swelling of cone OS with impairment of pedicles, loss of axons and dendrites of horizontal and rod bipolar cells that stained for calbindin (CB) and protein kinase C (PKC-α), respectively. After 9 days, horizontal cells were pyknotic and without terminal tips. There were similar degenerative processes in the outer plexiform layer for rod bipolar cells and loss of axon terminal lateral varicosities in the inner plexiform layer. Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) staining did not reveal a dramatic increase of gliosis in Müller cells. However, some Müller cells were CB immunoreactive at 6 days of culture. Over 9 days of culture, human neuroretina explants underwent morphological changes in photoreceptors, particularly the OS and axon terminals, and in postsynaptic horizontal and bipolar cells. These early changes, not previously described in cultured human samples, reproduce some celullar modifications after retinal damage. Thus, this model may be suitable to evaluate therapeutic agents during retinal degeneration processes.

Thermogravimetry and Py–GC/MS techniques as fast qualitative methods for comparing the biochemical composition of Nannochloropsis oculata samples obtained under different culture conditions

Microalgae have many applications, such as biodiesel production or food supplement. Depending on the application, the optimization of certain fractions of the biochemical composition (proteins, carbohydrates and lipids) is required. Therefore, samples obtained in different culture conditions must be analyzed in order to compare the content of such fractions. Nevertheless, traditional methods necessitate lengthy analytical procedures with prolonged sample turn-around times. Results of the biochemical composition of Nannochloropsis oculata samples with different protein, carbohydrate and lipid contents obtained by conventional analytical methods have been compared to those obtained by thermogravimetry (TGA) and a Pyroprobe device connected to a gas chromatograph with mass spectrometer detector (Py–GC/MS), showing a clear correlation. These results suggest a potential applicability of these techniques as fast and easy methods to qualitatively compare the biochemical composition of microalgal samples.

Culture Industries in a Postindustrial Age: Entertainment, Leisure, Creativity, Design

This article reviews the evolution of the concept of culture industries, when neither industry nor culture themselves are today what they were at the time when the term was coined. It attempts to explain the dilution of the term into more nebulous terms (“leisure industries,” “entertainment industries” or “creative industries”) and suggests new challenges for the research on culture industries. What is at stake is no longer an application of a Fordist production to culture, a one-directional mass communication and a mediation by experts, but rather: (1) a cultural experience which is no longer clearly separated from other activities (leisure in general, consumption and even work); (2) the communicative explosion of all industrial production in a media environment, where industrialized symbolic products are mixed with culturalized industrial products; and (3) the empowerment of the recipient, which on one hand ignores the traditional experts and on the other leads to post-productive (recreational and even creative) cultural practices.

Culture and World Vision: The Cognitive Mythical Mode

Culture is the system of knowledge, from whose meanings the human being screened and selected their understanding of Reality in the broad sense, and interprets and regulates the facts and data of social behavior. In this sense, culture is a program for social action and acting in humans during the process of socialization and social interaction. The meanings of each culture are the cumulative product of collective and individual thinking, in ecological economic, social and political specific situations, so are the expression of each particular cultural historical conjuncture. Moreover, the universal cognitive structure for the apprehension of cultural reality is the World Vision (WV). Due to its importance and significance as substratum of religious and political belief systems, we will gird our study to mythical cognitive mode or mythical WV.