Age- and sex-related growth patterns of the craniofacial complex in European children aged 3-6 years.

Background: Craniofacial growth changes in young children are not yet completely understood. Up-to-date references for craniofacial measurements are crucial for clinical assessment of orthodontic anomalies, craniofacial abnormalities and subsequent planning of interventions.

Aim: To provide normal reference data and to identify growth patterns for craniofacial dimensions of European boys and girls aged 3-6 years.

Extraction and amplification of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA from ancient and artificially aged bones.

An experimental design is presented that simulates an accelerated process of DNA degradation in human bone tissues and thus provides a possibility for a systematic investigation of factors hampering DNA extraction and amplification. Equal sized slices of human femoral bones were incubated in 90 degrees C water for 2 h up to 30 days. DNA was extracted and subjected to a human specific Duplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and also to a Multiplex short tandem repeat (STR) PCR.