Is Bone Elevation in Hand Muscle Attachments Associated with Biomechanical Stress? A Histological Approach to an Anthropological Question.

In anthropological sciences, muscle attachments are typically utilized for reconstructing the physical activities of past human populations. This approach relies on the concept that entheseal bone morphology is influenced by cumulative biomechanical stress. A fundamental criterion for assessing the stage of entheseal change involves the proportion of elevated bone area.

A repeatable geometric morphometric approach to the analysis of hand entheseal three-dimensional form.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to put forth a precise landmark-based technique for reconstructing the three-dimensional shape of human entheseal surfaces, to investigate whether the shape of human entheses is related to their size. The effects of age-at-death and bone length on entheseal shapes were also assessed.

Materials And Methods: The sample comprised high-definition three-dimensional models of three right hand entheseal surfaces, which correspond to 45 male adult individuals of known age.

Occupational manual activity is reflected on the patterns among hand entheses.

Objectives: In anthropological sciences, entheses are widely utilized as occupational stress markers. However, the reaction of entheseal surfaces to mechanical loading is not well understood. Furthermore, previous studies on entheses relied on the individuals' occupation-at-death.

Patterns of activity adaptation in humeral trabecular bone in Neolithic humans and present-day people.

Objective: The annual turnover rate of trabecular bone by far exceeds that of cortical bone and, therefore, is very sensitive to its daily loading regime. Here we test the hypothesis that the study of the trabecular bone architecture of the human humerus is able to differentiate between different habitual manual activities.

Materials And Methods: For this purpose, we compared the trabecular architecture of the humeral head in a Neolithic population to that of a sample of contemporary Europeans using micro-computed tomography (microCT).

A comparison of proximal humeral cancellous bone of great apes and humans.

The shoulder is the most mobile joint in the primate body, and is involved in both locomotor and manipulative activities. The presumed functional sensibility of trabecular bone can offer a way of decoding the activities to which the forelimbs of fossil primates were subjected. We examine the proximal humeral trabecular architecture in a relatively closely related group of similarly sized hominids (Pongo pygmaeus, Pan troglodytes, and Homo sapiens), in order to evaluate the effect of diverging habitual motion behaviors of the shoulder complex in a coherent phylogenetic group.

Structural adaptation of trabecular bone revealed by position resolved analysis of proximal femora of different primates.

The anisotropic arrangement of trabeculae in the proximal femur of humans and primates is seen as striking evidence for the functional adaptation of trabecular bone architecture. Quantitative evidence to demonstrate this adaptation for trabecular bone is still scarce, because experimental design of controlled load change is difficult. In this work, we use the natural variation of loading caused by a different main locomotor behavior of primates.

Functional Analysis of the Primate Shoulder.

Studies of the shoulder girdle are in most cases restricted to morphological comparisons and rarely aim at elucidating function in a strictly biomechanical sense. To fill this gap, we investigated the basic functional conditions that occur in the shoulder joint and shoulder girdle of primates by means of mechanics. Because most of nonhuman primate locomotion is essentially quadrupedal walking-although on very variable substrates-our analysis started with quadrupedal postures.

A new high-resolution computed tomography (CT) segmentation method for trabecular bone architectural analysis.

In the last decade, high-resolution computed tomography (CT) and microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) have been increasingly used in anthropological studies and as a complement to traditional histological techniques. This is due in large part to the ability of CT techniques to nondestructively extract three-dimensional representations of bone structures. Despite prior studies employing CT techniques, no completely reliable method of bone segmentation has been established.

Allergoid-specific T-cell reaction as a measure of the immunological response to specific immunotherapy (SIT) with a Th1-adjuvanted allergy vaccine.

Background: Specific immunotherapy (SIT) is believed to modulate CD4+ T-helper cells. In order to improve safety, SIT vaccines are often formulated with allergoids (chemically modified allergens). Interaction between T-cells and allergoids is necessary to influence cellular cytokine expression.

Effect of inhibitors of histone deacetylase on the induction of cell differentiation in murine and human erythroleukemia cell lines.

Histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors are a novel class of promising anti-cancer agents. Little information is available on the capacity of structurally different HDAC inhibitors to induce terminal cell differentiation in different cell types in relation to enzyme inhibition and subtype selectivity. Consequently, the aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive comparison of these effects.

Cancer chemopreventive activity of Xanthohumol, a natural product derived from hop.

Characterization and use of effective cancer chemopreventive agents have become important issues in public health-related research. Aiming to identify novel potential chemopreventive agents, we have established an interrelated series of bioassay systems targeting molecular mechanisms relevant for the prevention of tumor development. We report anticarcinogenic properties of Xanthohumol (XN), a prenylated chalcone from hop (Humulus Iupulus L.

Structure-activity relationships on phenylalanine-containing inhibitors of histone deacetylase: in vitro enzyme inhibition, induction of differentiation, and inhibition of proliferation in Friend leukemic cells.

Inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDACs) are a new class of anticancer agents that affect gene regulation. We had previously reported the first simple synthetic HDAC inhibitors with in vitro activity at submicromolar concentrations. Here, we present structure-activity data on modifications of a phenylalanine-containing lead compound including amino acid amides as well as variations of the amino acid part.

Amide analogues of trichostatin A as inhibitors of histone deacetylase and inducers of terminal cell differentiation.

Inhibitors of histone deacetylase (HD) bear great potential as new drugs due to their ability to modulate transcription and to induce apoptosis or differentiation in cancer cells. We have described previously analogues of the complex natural HD inhibitors trapoxin B and trichostatin A with activities in the submicromolar range. Here we report structure-activity relationship analyses of further analogues of trichostatin A with respect to in vitro inhibition of maize HD-2 and their ability to induce terminal cell differentiation in Friend leukemic cells.

Effects of vitamin E on mammary and blood leukocyte function, with emphasis on chemotaxis, in periparturient dairy cows.

Objective: To determine the effect of vitamin E supplementation on the immune system of dairy cows.

Design: The following immune parameters were followed: production of chemotactic factors and superoxide by mammary macrophages and chemotactic responsiveness of blood neutrophils.

Animals: 16 healthy Holstein dairy cows.

Effects of vitamin E on immune function of dairy cows.

The effect of vitamin E supplementation on the immune function of dairy cows was studied. Twelve cows were assigned to 1 of the 2 experimental groups: control (no vitamin E supplementation), and vitamin E-supplemented. Supplementation of vitamin E started 4 weeks before and continued up to 8 weeks after parturition and included oral supplementation of vitamin E at the rate of 3,000 IU/cow/d.

Hexadecylphosphocholine differs from conventional cytostatic agents.

Alkylphosphocholines, and especially their main representative hexadecylphosphocholine (HPC), show high anticancer activity in methylnitrosourea (MNU)-induced autochthonous rat mammary carcinoma. The regression of MNU-induced rat mammary carcinoma during HPC treatment can be evaluated by computed tomography and sonography. This allows a noninvasive monitoring of therapy in vivo (tumor size, morphology, and blood supply).

Formation and persistence of specific purine DNA adducts by 32P-postlabelling in target and non-target organs of rats treated with aristolochic acid I.

Binding of the naturally occurring carcinogen, aristolochic acid I (AAI), to DNA in male Wistar rats has been examined. Rats were treated orally with a single dose (13.8 mmol) of AAI and sacrificed 1 day and 1, 2, 4, 16 and 36 weeks after treatment.

Effects of a multiple mild infra-red-A induced hyperthermia on central and peripheral pulse waves in hypertensive patients.

The paper reports on the effects of multiple whole-body infra-red-A irradiational (IRA) on 13 male patients known to have stage I or stage II essential arterial hypertension (WHO definition). The peripheral blood pressure was decreased significantly by IRA exposures. The lowered diastolic blood pressure lasted into posttreatment time.

Activating mutations at codon 61 of the c-Ha-ras gene in thin-tissue sections of tumors induced by aristolochic acid in rats and mice.

The plant extract aristolochic acid, which consists mainly of aristolochic acid I (AAI) and aristolochic acid II (AAII), induces tumors in rats and mice. Thin-tissue sections of rat tumors induced by AAI and of mouse tumors induced by aristolochic acid, were analyzed for c-Ha-ras mutations in codon 61. Areas of neoplastic and histologically normal tissue were manually scraped out and separated.

Newly synthesized dithiocarbamates inhibit the metabolism and toxicity of N-nitrosodimethylamine.

Several dithiocarbamates (DTC) of secondary amines and secondary amino acids were tested for their stability in aqueous solution and for their effect on nitrosamine metabolizing enzymes and on the acute toxicity of N-nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA) in rats. The following results were found: (i) All DTC tested were stable in alkaline solution; in acidic milieu, only DTC derived from secondary amino acids were moderately stable. (ii) The activity of NDMA-demethylase in rat liver microsomes was inhibited completely by all DTC tested.