The Great Irish Famine: Identifying Starvation in the Tissues of Victims Using Stable Isotope Analysis of Bone and Incremental Dentine Collagen.
The Great Irish Famine: Identifying Starvation in the Tissues of Victims Using Stable Isotope Analysis of Bone and Incremental Dentine Collagen.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0160065
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发表时间：
2016
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Montgomery J
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Beaumont J;Montgomery J
过去和现在人类饮食的主要成分可以通过测量骨骼和牙齿牙本质中胶原蛋白的碳和氮同位素比率(δ13C和δ15N)来估计。然而，这两个组织的结果有很大的不同：骨胶原记录了多年的平均值，而原牙本质记录并保留了来自牙齿发育时期的有时间限制的同位素比率。最近的研究利用亚年度时间采样分辨率，通过确定意外的激进短期饮食变化、发生饮食变化的母乳喂养和迁徙的持续时间，以及提出可能影响δ13C和δ15N值的饮食以外的因素，揭示了我们祖先的个人饮食历史。在这里，我们展示了19世纪爱尔兰大饥荒时期济贫院囚犯的牙本质δ13C和δ15N谱，不仅记录了从C3土豆到C4玉米的预期饮食变化，而且当一起使用时，它们还记录了由于营养不足而导致的长期营养和其他生理压力。在成年人中，以玉米为基础的饮食的影响体现在牙本质(儿童时期形成)和肋骨(代表生命最后几年的平均值)之间的δ13C差异。已证实的压力对δ13C和δ15N值的影响将对过去人群对饮食的解释产生影响，即使是在密质骨等周转缓慢的组织中也是如此。这项技术也适用于现代营养不良儿童的调查，这些儿童没有头发和指甲，或者没有记录足够的时间。
The major components of human diet both past and present may be estimated by measuring the carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) of the collagenous proteins in bone and tooth dentine. However, the results from these two tissues differ substantially: bone collagen records a multi-year average whilst primary dentine records and retains time-bound isotope ratios deriving from the period of tooth development. Recent studies harnessing a sub-annual temporal sampling resolution have shed new light on the individual dietary histories of our ancestors by identifying unexpected radical short-term dietary changes, the duration of breastfeeding and migration where dietary change occurs, and by raising questions regarding factors other than diet that may impact on δ13C and δ15N values. Here we show that the dentine δ13C and δ15N profiles of workhouse inmates dating from the Great Irish Famine of the 19th century not only record the expected dietary change from C3 potatoes to C4 maize, but when used together they also document prolonged nutritional and other physiological stress resulting from insufficient sustenance. In the adults, the influence of the maize-based diet is seen in the δ13C difference between dentine (formed in childhood) and rib (representing an average from the last few years of life). The demonstrated effects of stress on the δ13C and δ15N values will have an impact on the interpretations of diet in past populations even in slow-turnover tissues such as compact bone. This technique also has applicability in the investigation of modern children subject to nutritional distress where hair and nails are unavailable or do not record an adequate period of time.