Histology of pulmonary tuberculosis in a 19th-century mummy from Comiso (Sicily, Italy).

Objective: The aim of this study is to investigate potential evidence of tuberculosis in mummified remains.

Materials: The natural mummy of an anonymous friar from the mortuary chapel of the church of Santa Maria della Grazia in Comiso (Sicily) METHODS: The mummy was studied through macroscopic examination; tissue sampling was conducted through breaches in the dorsal surface of the thorax. Radiological, histological and immunohistochemical analyses were performed on the pulmonary parenchyma.

Genetic Predisposition of Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease in Ancient Human Remains.

Background: Several computed tomographic studies have shown the presence of atherosclerosis in ancient human remains. However, while it is important to understand the development of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), genetic data concerning the prevalence of the disease-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in our ancestors are scarce.

Objective: For a better understanding of the role of genetics in the evolution of ASCVD, we applied an enrichment capture sequencing approach to mummified human remains from different geographic regions and time periods.

High-coverage genome of the Tyrolean Iceman reveals unusually high Anatolian farmer ancestry.

The Tyrolean Iceman is known as one of the oldest human glacier mummies, directly dated to 3350-3120 calibrated BCE. A previously published low-coverage genome provided novel insights into European prehistory, despite high present-day DNA contamination. Here, we generate a high-coverage genome with low contamination (15.

A nontuberculous mycobacterium could solve the mystery of the lady from the Franciscan church in Basel, Switzerland.

Background: In 1975, the mummified body of a female has been found in the Franciscan church in Basel, Switzerland. Molecular and genealogic analyses unveiled her identity as Anna Catharina Bischoff (ACB), a member of the upper class of post-reformed Basel, who died at the age of 68 years, in 1787. The reason behind her death is still a mystery, especially that toxicological analyses revealed high levels of mercury, a common treatment against infections at that time, in different body organs.

Molecular Reconstruction of the Diet in Human Stool Samples.

Understanding dietary effects on the gut microbial composition is one of the key questions in human microbiome research. It is highly important to have reliable dietary data on the stool samples to unambiguously link the microbiome composition to food intake. Often, however, self-reported diet surveys have low accuracy and can be misleading.

The Iceman's Last Meal Consisted of Fat, Wild Meat, and Cereals.

The history of humankind is marked by the constant adoption of new dietary habits affecting human physiology, metabolism, and even the development of nutrition-related disorders. Despite clear archaeological evidence for the shift from hunter-gatherer lifestyle to agriculture in Neolithic Europe [1], very little information exists on the daily dietary habits of our ancestors. By undertaking a complementary -omics approach combined with microscopy, we analyzed the stomach content of the Iceman, a 5,300-year-old European glacier mummy [2, 3].