Tissue engineering strategies that enable nerve regeneration will require methods that can promote and direct neurite extension across the lesion. In this report, we investigate an in vitro combinatorial approach to directed neurite outgrowth using gene delivery from topographically patterned substrates, which can induce expression of neurotrophic factors to promote neurite extension and direct the extending neurites. Poly(lactide-co-glycolide) (PLG), which has been used to fabricate conduits or bridges for regeneration, was compression molded to create channels with 100, 150, and 250 microm widths. DNA complexes were immobilized to the PLG, and cells cultured on the substrate were transfected with efficiencies dependent on channel width and DNA amount. A co-culture model consisting of primary neurons and accessory cells was employed to investigate neurite outgrowth within the channels. Localized secretion of nerve growth factor (NGF) by the accessory cells promoted neuron survival and neurite extension. Neurons cultured in channels with NGF expression exhibited longer primary neurites than in the absence of channels. Neurons cultured in smaller width PLG microchannels exhibited a greater degree of directionality and less secondary sprouting than larger channels. Finally, surface immobilization allowed for the delivery of distinct plasmids from each channel, which may enable channels to be tailored for specific nerve tracts. This approach demonstrates the ability to combine gene delivery with physical guidance, and can be tailored to target specific axonal populations with varying neurotrophic factor requirements.

The influence of Stesichorus on Greek tragedy is generally accepted. 1 Indeed, scholars have gone as far as to call the poems 'tragedies in embryo', 2 or to describe Stesichorean characterisation as 'a prototype of the tragic principal'. 3 Yet most discussions of the relationship between Stesichorus and tragedy suggest little detailed engagement between the texts. Rather, the focus is confined either to the broad shaping of the plot (for example, mythological innovations such as Helen's absence from Troy), or stylistic devices such as tragic irony, the significance of speeches, or the preponderance of female characters. 4 To some extent this is an inevitable consequence of the randomness of selection. Even where Stesichorus' choice of myth overlaps with a tragic version, if only a few lines of the Stesichorean poem survive, we are lucky if there is any visible connection between the texts. In the case of the Palinode, for example, our knowledge of the plot enables us to see links with Euripides' Helen, but too little remains to allow us to comment on anything other than the general handling of the myth. 5 Is it then impossible to identify Stesichorean traces in our close reading of tragedy? This article will argue that it is not, and that a close analysis can shed light on how the tragedians allude to the details of his poetry.Tragedy's metrical and thematic flexibility and its tendency towards mimesis make it adept at incorporating other poetic forms. In the main, interactions between lyric and tragedy tend to take the form of allusions to the tropes of lyric genres rather than intertexts with specific pieces. 6 Tragedy is aimed at a mass audience and to be successful, tragedians must take account of differing levels of knowledge. The use of (say) a paian-tag is likely to be more accessible than an allusion to a particular Pindaric Paian, since many audience members may not know particular texts, but still have a feeling for what certain genres tend to sound like. While some lyric forms were still performed in Athens, an individual would only know canonical works if they had formed part of his education (reinforced through institutions such as the symposium, which would encourage him to memorise and re-perform famous pieces). Moreover, tragedy (unlike comedy, which can explicitly alert the audience to intertextuality) is confined to its mythological setting, and allusions must be intelligible on their own merits. We find relatively few references to lyric poets compared to allusions to Homer, whose status as the 'core curriculum' in a literary education would have made him more widely accessible than other poets.Yet although tragedy prefers the generic to the specific, we nevertheless find intertextuality with lyric poetry. An example is the evocation of Pindar's ninth Paian in the parodos of Sophocles' Antigone, where the opening words ἀκτὶϲ ἀελίου are the same. 7 It seems likely that only a limited section of Sophocles' audience would have recognised the 1 See e.g. Bowra (1961) 140 ('his greatest influen...

No abstract

Ion 1074-89 and Tro. 197-229 share certain characteristics with these escape fantasies, though less unambiguously belong to the same category. 2 Cf. Soph. Ant. 1115-54; Aj. 693-718; Trach. 633-62. 3 A welcome break from this trend is R. Padel, ' "Imagery of the elsewhere": two choral odes of Euripides', CQ NS 24.2 (1974): 227-41, who analyses the escape fantasies in Hippolytus and Helen.

In recent years, our understanding of Archilochus has been transformed by the discovery of a major new fragment from the Oxyrhynchus collection (P Oxy. 4708), first published by Dirk Obbink. The new poem is not only the most substantial of Archilochus' elegiac fragments, but more importantly it is the first example we have of the poet's use of myth, for the surviving section narrates a mythological theme: the defeat of the Achaeans at the hands of Telephus during their first attempt to reach Troy. Scholars have found the choice and handling of the myth surprising, and the role that Telephus plays within the poem has been a subject of controversy. Yet this debate has tended to dwell on the Telephus myth in its general form, rather than focussing on the details of how Archilochus presents him in this particular context. This article will explore the significance that Telephus could have had for a Parian audience, and will use this to investigate the political and rhetorical impact of his presentation within the poem. I will argue that Archilochus highlights the aspects of Telephus' story which connect him most closely with Parian local myth, and that he does so in order to enhance the poem's central message: criticism and implicit mockery of the mythological battle and, by implication, of contemporary Parian military strategy.