Archaeological human remains provide key insight into lifestyles, health, and diseases affecting past societies. However, only limited analyses can be conducted without causing damage due to the destructive nature of current technologies. The same problem exists with current clinical analyses of the skeleton, and the preferred advanced imaging techniques only provide macroscopic information.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Mary Rose, for many years the flagship of the Tudor king, Henry VIII, sank during the battle of the Solent on the 19th July 1545. 437 years later, the remains of the hull and associated contents were recovered following a four-year excavation, all dated to a precise point in history. The assemblage is a valuable resource, as the environment preserved over 19,000 objects and the remains of a minimum of 179 crew members.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe use of elephant ivory as a commodity is a factor in declining elephant populations. Despite recent worldwide elephant ivory trade bans, mammoth ivory trade remains unregulated. This complicates law enforcement efforts, as distinguishing between ivory from extant and extinct species requires costly, destructive and time consuming methods.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnatomy has been integral to medical and health education for centuries, it has also had a significant role in wider public life, as an educational resource, a link to their health, and also as a darker deterrent. Historically, public engagement in anatomy is hallmarked by public dissections of convicted criminals across the globe. Artists, specifically non-medical men, such as Leonardo da Vinci, are reported to have participated in public dissection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAdv Exp Med Biol
August 2023
Biomedical visualization has a long history as a tool for education around public health. However, recent advances in our understanding of how to be more effective at communicating complex scientific ideas to a public audience necessitate a re-examination of approaches to biomedical visualization. Scientific knowledge has expanded dramatically in the twenty-first century, as has its availability beyond the scientific arena.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe mule deer () is an ungulate species that is distributed in a range from western Canada to central Mexico. Mule deer are an essential source of food for many predators, are relatively abundant, and commonly make broad migration movements. A clearer understanding of the mule deer genome can improve our knowledge of its population genetics, movements, and demographic history, aiding in conservation efforts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMelanins are a class of biopolymers that are widespread in nature and have diverse origins, chemical compositions, and functions. Their chemical, electrical, optical, and paramagnetic properties offer opportunities for applications in materials science, particularly for medical and technical uses. This review focuses on the application of analytical techniques to study melanins in multidisciplinary contexts with a view to their use as sustainable resources for advanced biotechnological applications, and how these may facilitate the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGenome Biol Evol
March 2021
Trichoptera (caddisflies) play an essential role in freshwater ecosystems; for instance, larvae process organic material from the water and are food for a variety of predators. Knowledge on the genomic diversity of caddisflies can facilitate comparative and phylogenetic studies thereby allowing scientists to better understand the evolutionary history of caddisflies. Although Trichoptera are the most diverse aquatic insect order, they remain poorly represented in terms of genomic resources.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMultiple variants and anomalies in the coronary vasculature have been reported. Some variants, particularly those with duplication, can be advantageous, many are insignificant and some are ultimately lethal. Many of these variants and anomalies are not identified until imaged or post-mortem.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlthough international regulations have been successfully implemented to reduce the introduction and spread of plant pests through wood packaging material (WPM), wood-boring insects continue to be intercepted in WPM at U.S. ports of entry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBiomedical research is a diverse and rapidly evolving subject area. The research and development that takes place as part of the field is aimed at understanding subjects such as diseases, disease progression, their treatment(s), treatment impact on patients as well as the general increase in understanding of the advancement of health sciences. The money and time invested in research is vast and discovery of novel data and production of publication(s) is seen as success.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPhilos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci
October 2019
Caddisfly (Trichoptera) larvae assemble a variety of underwater structures using bioadhesive silk. The order is divided into two primary sub-orders distinguished by how the larvae deploy their silk. Foraging Integripalpia larvae construct portable tube cases.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe authors report a rare variation of the coeliac trunk, renal and testicular vasculature in a 27-year-old male cadaver. In the present case, the coeliac trunk and superior mesenteric artery was replaced by a modified coeliacomesenteric trunk formed by hepato-gastric and superior mesenteric arteries. Here the hepato-gastric artery or trunk contributed towards the total hepatic inflow as well as a gastro-duodenal artery.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPublic knowledge of the anatomical "self" is lacking and evidence points towards a growing need for anatomy education to the wider public. The public were offered the opportunity to learn human anatomy and complete an anatomical knowledge survey afterwards. Sixty-three participants volunteered to attempt to place 20 anatomical structures on a blank human body template.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Alkaptonuria (AKU) is a rare autosomal recessive disease resulting from a single enzyme deficiency in tyrosine metabolism. As a result, homogentisic acid cannot be metabolized, causing systemic increases. Over time, homogentisic acid polymerizes and deposits in collagenous tissues, leading to ochronosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlkaptonuria is an iconic disease used by Archibald Garrod to demonstrate the theory of "inborn errors of metabolism". AKU knowledge has advanced in recent years: development of an in vitro model, discovery of murine models and advances in understanding bone and cartilage phenotypes and arthropathy in AKU. These discoveries have aided in a new clinical trial into nitisinone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSir William Turner, a Lancastrian, was renowned as a scientist, anatomist and a great reformer of medical education. His students became anatomists at various international institutions, which consequently shaped the future of anatomy as a subject matter both in the United Kingdom and in South Africa. Although Turner's accomplishments have been documented, little is known about the details that determined his career path and the individuals that shaped his future.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe hypothesis that is proposed is that tyrosinase, an enzyme widely found within the human body is implicated in the ochronosis that occurs in alkaptonuria; an autosomal recessive condition first used by Archibald Garrod to describe the theory of "Inborn Errors of Metabolism." The disease results from the absence of a single enzyme in the liver that breaks down homogentisic acid; this molecule becomes systemically elevated in sufferers. The condition is characterised by a clinical triad of symptoms; homogentisic aciduria from birth, ochronosis (darkening) of collagenous tissues (from ∼30years of age) and ochronotic osteoarthropathy in weight bearing joints due to long term ochronosis in them (from ∼40years of age).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Alkaptonuria (AKU) is a rare metabolic disease caused by deficiency of homogentisate 1,2 dioxygenase, an enzyme involved in tyrosine catabolism, resulting in increased circulating homogentisic acid (HGA). Over time HGA is progressively deposited as a polymer (termed ochronotic pigment) in collagenous tissues, especially the cartilages of weight bearing joints, leading to severe joint disease.
Objectives: To characterise blood biochemistry and arthropathy in the AKU mouse model (Hgd-/-).
Curr Opin Rheumatol
March 2013
Purpose Of Review: Osteoarthritis is the most common form of rheumatologic disease, with numerous factors increasing the risk of developing the condition; calcification of cartilage is common place in osteoarthritis. Regardless of these risk factors, certain disorders predispose individuals to developing arthritis. Pathologic mechanisms in cartilage calcification and advances in their understanding are reviewed alongside metabolic and endocrine arthritis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAlkaptonuria (AKU) is a rare disorder of autosomal recessive inheritance. It is caused by a mutation in a gene that results in the accumulation of homogentisic acid (HGA). Characteristically, the excess HGA means sufferers pass dark urine, which upon standing turns black.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFOsteoblast cultures can be used to investigate the mechanisms of bone formation, to probe the cellular and molecular basis of bone disease, and to screen for potential therapeutic agents that affect bone formation. Here, we describe the methods for establishing and characterising primary human osteoblast cultures.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: In pilot studies of the usefulness of solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy in characterizing chemical and molecular structural effects of alkaptonuria on connective tissue, we have obtained (13) C spectra from articular cartilage from an AKU patient. An apparently normal anatomical location yielded a cross polarization magic angle spinning spectrum resembling literature spectra and dominated by collagen and glycosaminoglycan signals. All spectral linewidths from strongly pigmented ochronotic cartilage however were considerably increased relative to the control indicating a marked increase in collagen molecular disorder.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRheumatology (Oxford)
February 2011
Objectives: Alkaptonuria (AKU) is a genetic disorder caused by lack of the enzyme responsible for breaking down homogentisic acid (HGA), an intermediate in tyrosine metabolism. HGA is deposited as a polymer, termed ochronotic pigment, in collagenous tissues. Pigmentation is progressive over many years, leading to CTDs including severe arthropathies.
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