During post-harvest storage, potato tubers age as they undergo an evolution of their physiological state influencing their sprouting pattern. In the present study, physiological and biochemical approaches were combined to provide new insights on potato (Solanum tuberosum L. cv. Désirée) tuber ageing. An increase in the physiological age index (PAI) value from 0.14 to 0.83 occurred during storage at 4 °C over 270 d. Using this reference frame, a proteomic approach was followed based on two-dimensional electrophoresis. In the experimental conditions of this study, a marked proteolysis of patatin occurred after the PAI reached a value of 0.6. In parallel, several glycolytic enzymes were up-regulated and cellular components influencing protein conformation and the response to stress were altered. The equilibrium between the 20S and 26S forms of the proteasome was modified, the 20S form that recycles oxidized proteins being up-regulated. Two proteins belonging to the cytoskeleton were also differentially expressed during ageing. As most of these changes are also observed in an oxidative stress context, an approach focused on antioxidant compounds and enzymes as well as oxidative damage on polyunsaturated fatty acids and proteins was conducted. All the changes observed during ageing seemed to allow the potato tubers to maintain their radical scavenging activity until the end of the storage period as no accumulation of oxidative damage was observed. These data are interpreted considering the impact of reactive oxygen species on the development and the behaviour of other plant systems undergoing ageing or senescence processes.
In 2008 and 2009 a large number of cases of haemorrhagic diathesis (HD) in neonatal calves were reported in different European countries. In Flanders, 84 cases of neonatal HD in 30 herds were reported in this period. The disease typically affects calves younger than 1 month old from different breed and gender. Prominent clinical signs are cutaneous bleeding, petechiae on all mucosae, melena and often high fever. Early in the disease, the mental state of the animals is uncompromised. The typical haematological finding is pancytopenia, with severe to complete thrombocytopenia being the cause of the increased susceptibility to bleeding. In seven of the affected herds blood samples of calves of the same age group as the clinical case were collected and on six of those farms at least one subclinical case could be identified. Necropsy findings were generalized petechiae, ecchymoses or haemorrhages and variable lymphadenopathy. Histopathology of haemorrhagic lesions revealed multifocal extravasation of red blood cells (haemorrhage) with preservation of tissue architecture and absence of other abnormalities. Total bone marrow aplasia and depletion of all lymphoid tissue was the most prominent finding on histology. Activated macrophages and haemophagocytosis were seen on bone marrow cytology from two live calves. Polymerase chain reaction for bovine viral diarrhoea virus, bluetongue and epizootic haemorrhagic disease virus was negative. Several attempts to isolate a viral agent were unsuccessful.
Within the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 (IMI 2) project VAC2VAC (Vaccine batch to vaccine batch comparison by consistency testing), a workshop has been organised to discuss ways of improving the design of multi-centre validation studies and use the data generated for product-specific validation purposes. Moreover, aspects of validation within the consistency approach context were addressed. This report summarises the discussions and outlines the conclusions and recommendations agreed on by the workshop participants.