Insight into the history of anatomopathological museums - Part 1. From casual assemblages to scientific collections.

We present a short history of anatomopathological museums in Europe. In the first part we provide an insight into the beginnings from the Renaissance until the middle of the 19th century. We assess forms of acquisition and exhibition of the specimens concerning the steps of medicine and pathology development. The prototypes were "curiosities of nature" collections starting in the 15th century. The next milestone collections focusing on the human body were those of Frederik Ruysch in the Netherlands (17th century). In the 18th century teachers in surgical and anatomical schools realized the educational power of such collections. Anatomopathology as a separate medical discipline was developing in parallel. At that time museums such as the one established by Honoré Fragonard in Paris, the Hunterian in Glasgow and Narrenturm in Vienna were created. At Polish universities in Cracow and Vilnius, such museums were beginning to emerge at the beginning of the 19th century. Anatomopathological collections became more popular, gathering specimens: osteological, dry and mummified, as well as wet - embedded in alcohol, formalin, and mysterious mixtures. They provide a wealth of important data for scientific, medical, historical and even ethical areas, as well as methods and concepts of conservation and even recreation of human body parts.

[The most popular poisons from Graeco-Roman world]. / Najbardziej popularne trucizny swiata grecko-rzymskiego.

Article presents the most popular antique poisons. Information from encyclopaedic literature and literary texts of the Roman Empire period has been compared with the etymology of the names of some poisons of plant and animal origin.

[Bezoars in history--not only a perfect antidote]. / Bezoary w historii--nie tylko odtrutka idealna.

Bezoar is a concretion found in gastrointestinal tract. The word "bezoar" is derived from the Arabic 'padzahr', and means antidote. Animal bezoars were widely used in medicine until the 18th century. Article presents European medieval and modern tradition about bezoar as an antidote. Ancient literary sources are compared with the medieval and modern medical and magical texts.

[Bull's blood as an ancient poison]. / Bycza krew jako antyczna trucizna.

Article presents ancient tradition about poisoning with bull's blood and the modern attempts of its explanation. Greek and Roman literary sources are compared with the ancient medical texts.

Transcriptomic landscape of blood platelets in healthy donors.

Blood platelet RNA-sequencing is increasingly used among the scientific community. Aberrant platelet transcriptome is common in cancer or cardiovascular disease, but reference data on platelet RNA content in healthy individuals are scarce and merit complex investigation. We sought to explore the dynamics of platelet transcriptome. Datasets from 204 healthy donors were used for the analysis of splice variants, particularly with regard to age, sex, blood storage time, unit of collection or library size. Genes B2M, PPBP, TMSB4X, ACTB, FTL, CLU, PF4, F13A1, GNAS, SPARC, PTMA, TAGLN2, OAZ1 and OST4 demonstrated the highest expression in the analysed cohort, remaining substantial transcription consistency. CSF3R gene was found upregulated in males (fold change 2.10, FDR q < 0.05). Cohort dichotomisation according to the median age, showed upregulated KSR1 in the older donors (fold change 2.11, FDR q < 0.05). Unsupervised hierarchical clustering revealed two clusters which were irrespective of age, sex, storage time, collecting unit or library size. However, when donors are analysed globally (as vectors), sex, storage time, library size, the unit of blood collection as well as age impose a certain degree of between- and/or within-group variability. Healthy donor platelet transcriptome retains general consistency, with very few splice variants deviating from the landscape. Although multidimensional analysis reveals statistically significant variability between and within the analysed groups, biologically, these changes are minor and irrelevant while considering disease classification. Our work provides a reference for studies working both on healthy platelets and pathological conditions affecting platelet transcriptome.