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Discoveries, views and news from pathology, forensic science, archaeology and paleontology
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Brower 2013
5,300 years ago, in the Alpine mountains along the border of Austria and Italy, a tattooed man with a load of cards stacked against him died. He had dental caries, a predisposition for coronary artery disease, lactose intolerance, a greasy gut full of ibex, a hand wound, an imbedded arrowhead in his chest, a brain bleed, and last but not least, a Borrelia burgdorferi infection. The story of the discovery of his body and his subsequent autopsy made big headlines well worth reviewing – nice documentary provided on the right. The discovery of Borrelia burgdorferi in this individual raised some intriguing questions. What was the Borrelia burgdorferi in his DNA actually doing? He’s the earliest known human infected by the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, but did he have any associated disease? Seems unlikely, given the absence of the description of Lyme disease before 1975. Today there are 35,000 cases reported per year in the US, so what happened with Borrelia? There are numerous conspiracy theories readily available that link the disease caused by this bacterium to secret government programs in the 60s and 70s. There are also active research groups across the globe trying to understand the pathogenesis of the disease, and every year there are a few reports by these researchers at the INCDNCM meeting. This year, one of the most visually appealing presentations I've seen was on the topic, given by George Chaconas of the University of Calgary. In it he presented live images of the invasion and extravasation of the bacterium through blood vessels; the problem for the bacterium being described by him as similar to a “spider in a garden hose”. His live capture video of Borrelia organisms flowing through vessels and managing to pull over and work through vascular endothelium reminded me of the techniques used by leukocytes to get from blood vessels to tissue antigens, and actually watching this occur for Borrelia was fairly amazing. |
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Articles by John Platt on extinct species can be found HERE
Soft-tissue specimens from pre-European extinct birds of New Zealand. NJ Rawlence, JR Wood, RP Scofield, C Fraser, and AJD Tennyson. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 2012
A gigantic basal tyrannosauroid,
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Re-thinking DinosaursDid feathers evolve with dinosaurs? Until recently feathered dinosaurs were seen as odd exceptions to the more commonly depicted reptilian versions most of us are familiar with. But as the picture of feathered dinosaurs is becoming more clear, this feature is appearing much more common. New evidence came with the discovery of feather filaments in a fossilized 150-million-year-old theropod, Sciurumimus albersdoerferi, found in Germany in 2012. The structures are similar to those seen in the flying reptiles Psittacosaurus, Tianyulong, and pterosaurs. Because Sciurumimus is a megalosauroid, a theropod greatly removed from the various types of feathered dinosaur and early birds recognized so far, the discovery of feather-like filaments on this fossil suggests that the characteristic was widespread in, and as old as Dinosauria.
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Postmortem Exams
How long has cardiovascular disease been the real Achilles’ heel of hominids?
Looks like the answer is a very long time. Read the article below left to find out what CT has revealed about ancient Egyptian cardiovascular health.
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Something about this feels like the helicobacter/ulcer discovery... very exciting findings in the paper abstracted on the right.
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Intestinal microbiota metabolism of L-carnitine, a nutrient in red meat, promotes atherosclerosis
Robert A Koeth, Zeneng Wang, Bruce S Levison, Jennifer A Buffa, Elin Org, Brendan T Sheehy, Earl B Britt, Xiaoming Fu, Yuping Wu, Lin Li, Jonathan D Smith, Joseph A DiDonato, Jun Chen, Hongzhe Li, Gary D Wu, James D Lewis, Manya Warrier, J Mark Brown, Ronald M Krauss, W H Wilson Tang, Frederic D Bushman, Aldons J Lusis & Stanley L Hazen Nature Medicine (2013) doi:10.1038/nm.3145/Published online 07 April 2013 Abstract Intestinal microbiota metabolism of choline and phosphatidylcholine produces trimethylamine (TMA), which is further metabolized to a proatherogenic species, trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO). We demonstrate here that metabolism by intestinal microbiota of dietary L-carnitine, a trimethylamine abundant in red meat, also produces TMAO and accelerates atherosclerosis in mice. Omnivorous human subjects produced more TMAO than did vegans or vegetarians following ingestion of L-carnitine through a microbiota-dependent mechanism. The presence of specific bacterial taxa in human feces was associated with both plasma TMAO concentration and dietary status. Plasma L-carnitine levels in subjects undergoing cardiac evaluation (n = 2,595) predicted increased risks for both prevalent cardiovascular disease (CVD) and incident major adverse cardiac events (myocardial infarction, stroke or death), but only among subjects with concurrently high TMAO levels. Chronic dietary L-carnitine supplementation in mice altered cecal microbial composition, markedly enhanced synthesis of TMA and TMAO, and increased atherosclerosis, but this did not occur if intestinal microbiota was concurrently suppressed. In mice with an intact intestinal microbiota, dietary supplementation with TMAO or either carnitine or choline reduced in vivo reverse cholesterol transport. Intestinal microbiota may thus contribute to the well-established link between high levels of red meat consumption and CVD risk. |
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April 2013 Neruda Update:
The verdict is...still out. Metastatic prostatic carcinoma has been reported based on a CT scan and radiographs. Allegations that he was poisoned haven't been ruled out and Dr. Patricio Bustos says the recent test is not conclusive. The forensic team includes: Chile: Dr.Patricio Bustos, director of the Forensic Service. Edgar Ruedas, forensic dentist's Legal Medical Service; Viviana Uribe Tamblay, Special Unit Forensic Identification SML University of Chile; Luis Ciocca, specialist legal and forensic dentistry, German Tapia, medical examiner Dr. Patricio Bustos tanatólogo.El, director of the Forensic Service. Argentina: Mercedes Salado, forensic anthropologist USA: Ruth Winecker, U.S. forensic toxicologist Spain: Guillermo Repetto, Doctor of Medicine and Master in Surgery and toxicology Felipe Donoso, international head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Canada: Consulting University of Toronto. From Huffington Post World: Pablo Neruda To Be Exhumed In Chile: Court Orders Investigation Into Poet's Cause Of Death
SANTIAGO, Chile — The body of Nobel Prize-winning poet Pablo Neruda will be exhumed for an autopsy seeking clues to what killed him. Neruda died days after the 1973 military coup that ended the life of his close friend, socialist President Salvador Allende. With Gen. Augusto Pinochet's forces killing prominent leftists, friends had a plane waiting to carry Neruda into exile. Neruda was hospitalized with cancer at the time, but friends have told The Associated Press that the official cause of extreme malnutrition makes no sense because Neruda weighed 220 pounds (100 kilograms). Forensic scientists have said it would be very difficult to determine from his remains whether drugs were given in doses big enough to kill him. Still, the Pablo Neruda Foundation announced Friday that it supports Judge Mario Carroza's investigation.
Commentaries on PathologyThe weight of Expert Opinion |
Editorial by Brower, April 2013
What effects do postmortem examinations have on the living?
There are many, and they are different depending on factors like context and the society or individual interpreting the results. A highly publicized postmortem examination of Richard III in Leicestershire UK drove an emotional and political debate within British society, one that may have made little sense to the non-British public. Arguments over where to re-burry him were driven by attitudes about his conduct in life, new revelations about the context and cause of his death, even guilt over the absence of a coffin and the long held hatred of a man based on his depiction by Shakespeare. But this postmortem reached beyond British society - it was a romantic return to a history that we all share, a discovery that many of us didn’t think was possible in this day and age, and it brought different groups together over a common, and at face value somewhat simple event, the examination of human remains. The video above describes the recent recovery of the remains of Richard III, and the wait, wait don't tell me skit below is an example of an American comedic response to the discovery.
Bodies are discarded every day by the thousands; approximately 5 people die every 3 seconds. So what makes one death different from another? Largely, it comes down to how much we think about it; how much attention we choose to give it. People can find meaning in life through the special capacity of our brains to hold and recall events. The still largely mysterious capacity to remember allows us to simultaneously be in the present, and through memory be in the past. One of the effects of postmortem examination is the shaping of our individual and collective memories. We can imagine an existence where we didn’t do this; where we didn't think about the past and lived only in the moment. I have even heard people argue that we should try to live this way, but for me, that would deny one of the greatest gifts our minds have to offer. You can hear more about memory in interviews with Eric Kandell on the art and science page, click HERE. Mummy Tells Story of a Sacrifice, Scientists Say
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD The New York Times
Published: May 22, 1996 Five centuries ago, in the waning years of the Inca empire in Peru, a girl with long black hair and a graceful neck, dressed in fine alpaca wool, knelt on a cold, windswept summit in the Andes. She was in the presence of Inca priests and surrounded by offerings of pottery, coca leaves and golden figurines. As she bent her head, a powerful blow was delivered, cracking her skull above the right eye and causing death by intercranial bleeding - one more ritual sacrifice of a virgin to the mountain god of Nevada Ampato. That is the conclusion of scientists at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore after their post-mortem examination of a mummy discovered last September in the ice on the 20,700-foot Mount Ampato, near Arequipa, Peru. The well-preserved remains of the girl were naturally mummified in the arid, freezing environment and had been entombed in ice. The scientists described their findings in telephone interviews yesterday and at a news conference in Washington, where the still-frozen mummy went on display at the National Geographic Society. The mummy, enclosed in a refrigeration unit, will remain on exhibit through June 19 and will then be returned to Peru for further scientific study. |
Links to other videos |
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ResourcesPlease feel free to suggest other sources of forensic science information through the contact form below.
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Useful Web Sites:
American Association of Forensic Science http://www.aafs.org/forensic-links http://www.aafs.org/membership The Paleopathology Association |
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