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Various Lines (various + line)
Selected AbstractsContact in the Andes: Bioarchaeology of systemic stress in colonial Mórrope, PeruAMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 3 2009Haagen D. Klaus Abstract The biocultural interchange between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres beginning in the late fifteenth century initiated an unprecedented adaptive transition for Native Americans. This article presents findings from the initial population biological study of contact in the Central Andes of Peru using human skeletal remains. We test the hypothesis that as a consequence of Spanish colonization, the indigenous Mochica population of Mórrope on the north coast of Peru experienced elevated systemic biological stress. Using multivariate statistical methods, we examine childhood stress reflected in the prevalence of linear enamel hypoplasias and porotic hyperostosis, femoral growth velocity, and terminal adult stature. Nonspecific periosteal infection prevalence and D30+/D5+ ratio estimations of female fertility characterized adult systemic stress. Compared to the late pre-Hispanic population, statistically significant patterns of increased porotic hyperostosis and periosteal inflammation, subadult growth faltering, and depressed female fertility indicate elevated postcontact stress among both children and adults in Mórrope. Terminal adult stature was unchanged. A significant decrease in linear enamel hypoplasia prevalence may not indicate improved health, but reflect effects of high-mortality epidemic disease. Various lines of physiological, archaeological, and ethnohistoric evidence point to specific socioeconomic and microenvironmental factors that shaped these outcomes, but the effects of postcontact population aggregation in this colonial town likely played a fundamental role in increased morbidity. These results inform a model of postcontact coastal Andean health outcomes on local and regional scales and contribute to expanding understandings of the diversity of indigenous biological variation in the postcontact Western Hemisphere. Am J Phys Anthropol, 2009. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc. [source] REE and C-O Isotopic Geochemistry of Calcites from the World-class Huize Pb-Zn Deposits, Yunnan, China: Implications for the Ore GenesisACTA GEOLOGICA SINICA (ENGLISH EDITION), Issue 3 2010Zhilong HUANG Abstract: The world-class Huize Pb-Zn deposits of Yunnan province, in southwestern China, located in the center of the Sichuan-Yunnan-Guizhou Pb-Zn polymetallic metallogenic province, has Pb+Zn reserves of more than 5 million tons at Pb+Zn grade of higher than 25% and contains abundant associated metals, such as Ag, Ge, Cd, and Ga. The deposits are hosted in the Lower Carboniferous carbonate strata and the Permian Emeishan basalts which distributed in the northern and southwestern parts of the orefield. Calcite is the only gangue mineral in the primary ores of the deposits and can be classified into three types, namely lumpy, patch and vein calcites in accordance with their occurrence. There is not intercalated contact between calcite and ore minerals and among the three types of calcite, indicating that they are the same ore-forming age with different stages and its forming sequence is from lumpy to patch to vein calcites. This paper presents the rare earth element (REE) and C-O isotopic compositions of calcites in the Huize Pb-Zn deposits. From lumpy to patch to vein calcites, REE contents decrease as LREE/HREE ratios increase. The chondrite-normalized REE patterns of the three types of calcites are characterized by LREE-rich shaped, in which the lumpy calcite shows (La)N < (Ce)N < (Pr)N, (Nd)N with Eu/Eu* < 1, the patch calcite has (La)N < (Ce)N < (Pr)N, (Nd)N with Eu/Eu* > 1, and the vein calcite displays (La)N > (Ce)N > (Pr)N > (Nd)N with Eu/Eu* > 1. The REE geochemistry of the three types of calcite is different from those of the strata of various age and Permian Emeishan basalt exposed in the orefield. The ,13CPDB and ,18OSMOW values of the three types of calcites vary from ,3.5, to ,2.1, and 16.7, to 18.6,, respectively, falling within a small field between primary mantle and marine carbonate in the ,13CPDB vs ,18OSMOW diagram. Various lines of evidence demonstrate that the three types of calcites in the deposits are produced from the same source with different stages. The ore-forming fluids of the deposits resulted from crustal-mantle mixing processes, in which the mantle-derived fluid components might be formed from degassing of mantle or/and magmatism of the Permian Emeishan basalts, and the crustal fluid was mainly provided by carbonate strata in the orefield. The ore-forming fluids in the deposits were homogenized before mineralization, and the ore-forming environment varied from relatively reducing to oxidizing. [source] Embryonic reversions and lineage infidelities in tumour cells: genome-based models and role of genetic instabilityINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PATHOLOGY, Issue 2 2005Leon P. Bignold Summary Reversions to ,embryonic precursor'-type cells and infidelities of tumour cell lineage (including metaplasias) have been recognized as aspects of various tumour types since the 19th century. Since then, evidence of these phenomena has been obtained from numerous clinical, biochemical, immunological and molecular biological studies. In particular, microarray studies have suggested that ,aberrant' expressions of relevant genes are common. An unexplained aspect of the results of these studies is that, in many tumour types, the embryonic reversion or lineage infidelity only occurs in a proportion of cases. As a parallel development during the molecular biological investigation of tumours over the last several decades, genetic instability has been found much more marked, at least in some preparations of tumour cells, than that identified by means of previous karyotypic investigations of tumours. This study reviews examples of embryonic reversion and lineage infidelity phenomena, which have derived from the various lines of investigation of cancer over the last 150 or so years. Four categories of circumstances of the occurrence of embryonic reversions or lineage infidelities have been identified , (i) as part of the defining phenotype of the tumour, and hence being presumably integral to the tumour type, (ii) present ab initio in only some cases of the tumour type, and presumably being regularly associated with, but incidental to, the essential features of the tumour type, (iii) occurring later in the course of the disease and thus being possibly a manifestation of in vivo genetic instability and ,tumour progression' and (iv) arising probably by genetic instability, during the processes, especially cell culture, associated with ex vivo investigations. Genomic models are described which might account for the origin of these phenomena in each of these circumstances. [source] Investigation of penetratin peptides.JOURNAL OF PEPTIDE SCIENCE, Issue 12 2005Part 2. Abstract As endocytic uptake of the Antennapedia homeodomain-derived penetratin peptide (RQIKIWFQNRRMKWKK) is finally being revealed, some of the early views about penetratin need to be reconsidered. Endocytic uptake seems to contradict the indispensability of tryptophans and also the minimum length of 16 amino acid residues for efficient internalization. To revise the membrane translocation of penetratin, two penetratin analogs were designed and synthesized: a peptide in which tryptophans were replaced by phenylalanines (Phe6, 14 -penetratin, RQIKIFFQNRRMKFKK) and a shortened analog (dodeca-penetratin, RQIKIWF-R-KWKK) made up of only 12 residues. The peptides were fluorescently labeled and applied to live, unfixed cells from various lines. Cellular uptake was analysed by confocal microscopy and flow cytometry. Low temperature or ATP-depletion blocked the intracellular entry of all three penetratin peptides. A decrease in membrane fluidity or cholesterol depletion with methyl-,-cyclodextrin greatly inhibited peptide uptake, showing the involvement of cholesterol-rich lipid rafts in internalization. Exogenous heparan sulfate also diminished the internalization of penetratin and its derivatives, reflecting the paramount importance of electrostatic interactions with polyanionic cell-surface proteoglycans. The beneficial presence of tryptophans is supported by observations on the decreased cellular uptake of Phe6, 14 -penetratin. The maintained translocational efficiency of dodeca-penetratin demonstrates that a thorough understanding of penetratin internalization can yield new penetratin analogs with unaltered translocational abilities. This study provides evidence on the energy-dependent and lipid raft-mediated endocytic uptake of penetratin and highlights the necessity of revealing those pathways that cationic cell-penetrating peptides employ to enter live cells. Copyright © 2005 European Peptide Society and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Loss of TIP1;1 aquaporin in Arabidopsis leads to cell and plant deathTHE PLANT JOURNAL, Issue 6 2004Shisong Ma Summary Arabidopsis TIP1;1 (,TIP) is a member of the tonoplast family of aquaporins (AQP). Using RNA interference (RNAi) we reduced TIP1;1 to different extent in various lines. When most severely affected, miniature plants died, a phenotype partially complemented by the TIP1;1 homolog McMIP-F. Less severely affected lines produced small plants, early senescence, and showed lesion formation. The relative water content in TIP1;1 RNAi plants was not significantly affected. Global expression profiling suggested a disturbance in carbon metabolism in RNAi lines with upregulated transcripts for functions in carbon acquisition and respiration, vesicle transport, signaling and transcription, and radical oxygen stress. Metabolite profiles showed low glucose, fructose, inositol, and threonic, succinic, fumaric, and malic acids, but sucrose levels were similar to WT. Increased amounts were found for raffinose and several unknown compounds. TIP1;1 RNAi plants also contained high starch and apoplastic carbohydrate increased. A GFP-TIP1;1 fusion protein indicated tonoplast location in spongy mesophyll cells, and high signal intensity in palisade mesophyll associated with vesicles near plastids. Signals in vascular tissues were strongest not only in vesicle-like structures but also outlined large vacuoles. Compromised routing of carbohydrate and lack of sucrose provision for cell-autonomous functions seems to characterize this RNAi phenotype. We suggest a function for TIP1;1 in vesicle-based metabolite routing through or between pre-vacuolar compartments and the central vacuole. Phenotype and expression characteristics support a view of TIP1;1 functioning as a marker for vesicles that are targeted to the central vacuole. [source] Geranylgeraniol, an Intermediate Product in Mevalonate Pathway, Induces Apoptotic Cell Death in Human Hepatoma Cells: Death Receptor-independent Activation of Caspase-8 with Down-regulation of Bcl-xL ExpressionCANCER SCIENCE, Issue 9 2001Yoshio Takeda Geranylgeraniol (GGOH), an intermediate of mevalonate metabolism, is known to induce apoptosis in various lines of cancer cells. The present study was undertaken to clarify the signaling pathways of apoptosis induced by GGOH in human hepatoma cells. HuH-7 human hepatoma cells were incubated in the absence or presence of GGOH. Activation of caspase-8/-9/-3 in HuH-7 cells was found after 8 h treatment with GGOH, at which tune DNA fragmentation and loss of mitochondrial transmembrane potential (,,m) occurred. HuH-7 cells do not express Bcl-2; however, down-regulation of Bcl-xL expression preceded activation of the caspase cascade in GGOH-treated HuH-7 cells, while Bax expression was not changed by GGOH treatment. Addition of caspase inhibitors restored the decreased cell viability of HuH-7 cells by GGOH, including ,,m, to the baseline level, which indicated that caspase triggers mitochondria-dependent apoptotic pathways in GGOH-treated HuH-7 cells. Similarly, GGOH-mediated apoptosis of HuH-7 cells was clearly prevented by coadministration of ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), which led to restoration of the level of Bcl-xL expression. Activation of caspase-8/-9/-3, as well as ,,m, by GGOH treatment was suppressed by addition of UDCA. Our results indicate that activation of the caspase cascade initiating from caspase-8, which could be accelerated by down-regulation of Bcl-xL expression, plays a key role in an apoptotic process induced by GGOH in human hepatoma cells. [source] | |||||||||||||