Biomolecular characterization of 3500-year-old ancient Egyptian mummification balms from the Valley of the Kings.

Ancient Egyptian mummification was practiced for nearly 4000 years as a key feature of some of the most complex mortuary practices documented in the archaeological record. Embalming, the preservation of the body and organs of the deceased for the afterlife, was a central component of the Egyptian mummification process. Here, we combine GC-MS, HT-GC-MS, and LC-MS/MS analyses to examine mummification balms excavated more than a century ago by Howard Carter from Tomb KV42 in the Valley of the Kings. Balm residues were scraped from now empty canopic jars that once contained the mummified organs of the noble lady Senetnay, dating to the 18th dynasty, ca. 1450 BCE. Our analysis revealed balms consisting of beeswax, plant oil, fats, bitumen, Pinaceae resins, a balsamic substance, and dammar or Pistacia tree resin. These are the richest, most complex balms yet identified for this early time period and they shed light on balm ingredients for which there is limited information in Egyptian textual sources. They highlight both the exceptional status of Senetnay and the myriad trade connections of the Egyptians in the 2nd millennium BCE. They further illustrate the excellent preservation possible even for organic remains long removed from their original archaeological context.

Personalised iron supply for prophylaxis and treatment of pregnant women as a way to ensure normal iron levels in their breast milk.

RATIONALE: Because the characteristics of all body fluids depends on patient's health status, is it possible that disadvantaged and socially vulnerable mothers may have lower amounts of iron in their breast milk, and that their babies receive lower content of the mineral for their normal growth and development. Assuring a preventive treatment of the mother might solve this problem. OBJECTIVE: To demonstrate breast milk iron content from disadvantaged mothers and impact of personalized iron supplementation program. MATERIALS AND METHODS: cross-sectional study. Breast milk samples were obtained for ferritin analysis. Health's services usually provides free folic acid and iron treatment however, treatment compliance is low. Patients were random in two groups: "A: Controls" that had free iron tablets available from Health Centre; and "B: Intervention" group where patients accepted to be periodically contacted at home by health's team for personalized iron dispensation. RESULTS: 360 patients were included. Profilaxis and treatment compliance were 100% and 97,6% for B group while for "Control" one was 63% and 34%(p0.0001). Higher breast milk iron levels were detected in Intervention's mothers compared with control's patients (p0.007). CONCLUSION: Personalized iron prophylaxis and treatment increased breast milk iron levels. Public health policy must ensure iron dispensation for each underserved mother in order to reduce children problems associate to iron deficiency during the first year of their life.

Phase fluctuations and the absence of topological defects in a photo-excited charge-ordered nickelate.

The dynamics of an order parameter's amplitude and phase determines the collective behaviour of novel states emerging in complex materials. Time- and momentum-resolved pump-probe spectroscopy, by virtue of measuring material properties at atomic and electronic time scales out of equilibrium, can decouple entangled degrees of freedom by visualizing their corresponding dynamics in the time domain. Here we combine time-resolved femotosecond optical and resonant X-ray diffraction measurements on charge ordered La(1.75)Sr(0.25)NiO(4) to reveal unforeseen photoinduced phase fluctuations of the charge order parameter. Such fluctuations preserve long-range order without creating topological defects, distinct from thermal phase fluctuations near the critical temperature in equilibrium. Importantly, relaxation of the phase fluctuations is found to be an order of magnitude slower than that of the order parameter's amplitude fluctuations, and thus limits charge order recovery. This new aspect of phase fluctuations provides a more holistic view of the phase's importance in ordering phenomena of quantum matter.

Vitamin E-enhanced IL-2 production in old mice: naive but not memory T cells show increased cell division cycling and IL-2-producing capacity.

Aging is associated with reduced T cell function, as demonstrated by decreased T cell proliferation and IL-2 production. These changes respond to supplemental vitamin E both in animals and humans, in part by the reduction of T cell suppressive PGE(2), the production of which by macrophages is increased with age. To evaluate whether vitamin E has a direct PGE(2)-independent effect on T cell responses, T cells purified from the spleens of young and old mice were preincubated with vitamin E or vehicle control. Activation-induced cell division of T cells from old mice was lower than that by young, and the production of IL-2 following 48-h activation was less by T cells from old mice. There was an age-related decline in both the number of IL-2+ T cells and the amount of IL-2 produced per cell. Despite decreased IL-2 protein at 48 h, the expression of IL-2 mRNA at 6 h and IL-2 protein production at 6 and 16 h was greater by T cells from old mice compared with that of young. Age-related decline in cell division and IL-2 production at 48 h was only observed within the naive T cell subpopulation. Vitamin E increased both cell-dividing and IL-2-producing capacity of naive T cells from old mice, with no effect on memory T cells. These data indicate that naive T cells exhibit the greatest age-related defect and show for the first time that supplemental vitamin E has direct immunoenhancing effect on naive T cells from old mice.

Bonesetters and curers in a Mexican community: conceptual models, status, and gender.

In the indigenous Mexican village of Hueyapan, there is a clear contrast between the supernatural beliefs curers use to explain illness and the naturalistic assumptions made by this community's bonesetters. In addition to employing different conceptual models, the two types of healers differ with respect to their manner of recruitment, training, types of illnesses treated, social status, and gender. These differences add up to a seeming enigma: in a community where men largely control political, economic, and religious affairs, the higher status role of curer is undertaken most frequently by women and the lower status specialty of bonesetter by men. Hueyapan's health care system becomes less problematical, however, when it is recognized that recruitment to the bonesetter and curer roles is shaped by pragmatic considerations of role continuity and compatibility independent of the social status of these two occupations.

Cytosine deaminase gene as a positive selection marker.

Cytosine deaminase (EC 3.5.4.1), a non-mammalian enzyme, catalyzes the deamination of cytosine and 5-fluorocytosine to form uracil and 5-fluorouracil, respectively. Eukaryotic cells have been genetically modified with a bacterial cytosine deaminase gene to express a functional enzyme. When the genetically modified cells are combined with 5-fluorocytosine, it creates a potent negative selection system, which may have important applications in cancer gene therapy. In this paper, we introduce a novel positive selection method based upon the expression of the cytosine deaminase gene. This method utilizes inhibitors in the pyrimidine de novo synthesis pathway to create a condition in which cells are dependent on the conversion of pyrimidine supplements to uracil by cytosine deaminase. Thus, only cells expressing the cytosine deaminase gene can be rescued in a positive selection medium.

[Therapy of degenerative rheumatic diseases. Need for additional analgesic medication with Phytodolor N]. / Therapie degenerativer rheumatischer Erkrankungen. Bedarf an zusätzlicher analgetischer Medikation unter Phytodolor N.

In 40 inpatients with painful degenerative diseases, the additional requirement for nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NAIDs) to obtain results identical with a given daily dose of either 3 x 30 drops of Phytodolor N or placebo administered over 3 weeks was investigated. Under Phytodolor N, a total of 100 mg of diclofenac and 1 tablet (500 mg) of paracetamol were additionally administered in 18 patients; under placebo, 2,400 mg of diclofenac and 3 tablets of paracetamol. In terms of days, additional medication was required on 3 days in the Phytodolor group, and on 47 days in the placebo group. Under Phytodolor N, the improvements obtained were identical to those in the group receiving in part considerably higher doses of NSAIDs and placebo. Clinical improvements are marked and major improvements (p less than 0.05) occur after only 1 week, with improvement being progressive. No side effects were observed.

Tumour-specific inhibition of lymphoma growth by an antisense oligodeoxynucleotide.

In a high proportion of Burkitt lymphomas, transcription of the c-myc gene is initiated from a cryptic promoter in the first intron, creating abnormal messenger RNA molecules in which intron sequences, normally spliced out of the nascent transcripts, persist. An antisense oligodeoxynucleotide directed against these intron sequences greatly inhibited the proliferation of Burkitt lymphoma cell lines containing the abnormal transcripts (ST486 and JD38), but not that of cell lines containing normal c-myc transcripts (KK124). Flow cytometry showed a pronounced reduction in intracellular c-myc protein levels in cell lines containing aberrant myc transcripts, but no change in other cellular proteins. Control oligonucleotide did not inhibit c-myc protein expression or growth. These experiments provide evidence that antisense oligonucleotides targeted against tumour-specific, aberrant RNA species could be effective in controlling the proliferation of tumour cells without affecting normal cells.

Meal timing as a Zeitgeber for skeletal deoxyribonucleic acid and collagen synthesis rhythms.

Meal timing protocols were used to probe the circadian regulation of DNA and protein synthesis in the rat tibia. Two groups of 4-week-old rats were entrained to 12-h light, 12-h dark cycles (light, 0800-2000 h; darkness, 2000-0800 h) for 4 weeks. One group was fed for 4 h at the onset of the light span (EL). The other group was fed for 4 h at the onset of the dark span (ED). Forty-eight hours before death, the rats were injected ip with 0.015 microCi/g BW [14C]proline [collagen and noncollagen protein (NCP) synthesis], and they received 0.25 microCi/g BW [3H] thymidine (DNA synthesis) 1 h before death. Groups of 10-12 rats were bled from the abdominal aorta at 4-h intervals under light ether anesthesia (1-2 min/rat) during 2 consecutive 24-h periods, and the tibias were then biopsied and frozen in liquid N2. Serum samples were analyzed for calcium, inorganic phosphorus, and immunoassayable levels of corticosterone (CS), PTH, and calcitonin. Epiphyseal cartilage and metaphyseal and diaphyseal bone were analyzed for DNA and acidic pepsin-digestible collagen. Chronograms indicated that DNA synthesis in cartilage and bone, along with serum CS, showed two approximately equal and positively correlated peaks, with the cycles for rats fed EL vs. ED being in approximate antiphase. The fit of a 12-h cosine curve was statistically significant in all cases (P less than 0.01). The acrophase peaks were: EL, 0800 and 2000 h; and ED, 1600 and 0400 h. These patterns were unrelated to those for NCP and collagen synthesis. EL and ED relationships for NCP synthesis were also antiphasal. A statistically significant circadian rhythm of collagen synthesis was detected in cartilage and bone of ED-fed rats (peak, 0800 h; nadir, 2400 h). In EL-fed rats, the 0800 h peak alone was muted. No consistent correlations were observed between serum calcium and phosphorus chronograms and those of cartilage and bone collagen and DNA synthesis. The results suggest that physiological alterations of CS in vivo serve to modulate cartilage and bone cell proliferation, but they do not seem to regulate the phasing of the net collagen synthetic rhythm.