Diet and the Composition of Bone

这笔拨款允许兰伯特博士和他的同事研究饮食对骨骼成分的影响。他们将用选定的几种测试饮食中的每一种来饲养实验室大鼠，然后分析它们骨骼的元素含量。测试饮食将包括那些含有大量肉类、玉米、小麦、坚果、乳制品、叶类蔬菜、淀粉和鱼的饮食。将对获得的数据进行多变量分析，以确定所使用的各种饮食的食物和骨骼特征。通过合作，将获得关于稀土元素和稳定同位素的类似数据。这个方案将允许研究人员解决三个问题：饮食中的元素水平是如何转化为骨骼中的元素水平的？在这种情况下，哪些元素相互作用，是拮抗的还是协同的？多元素图谱可以指定饮食中的几种成分吗？考古学家试图重建过去的生活方式，其中一个关键方面涉及过去的生存技术。由于许多材料，如植物遗骸，在考古记录中保存得很差，过去的饮食极难确定。人类骨骼遗骸经常在考古发掘过程中被发现，分析表明这些骨骼似乎保存了饮食信息。例如，锶的水平似乎与饮食中肉类的比例成反比。然而，人们并不清楚这些关系到底是什么。因此，兰伯特博士的研究具有重要的考古学意义，它可能为研究人员提供一种重要的新工具。

This grant permits Dr. Lambert and his colleagues to study the effect of diet on bone composition. They will raise laboratory rats on each of several selected test diets and then analyze the elemental content of their bone. Test diets will include those with substantial components of meat, corn, wheat, nuts, dairy products, leafy vegetables, starch and fish. Multivariate analysis will be performed on the data obtained in order to define both food and skeletal profiles for the various types of diets used. Through collaboration, analogous data will be obtained on both rare earth elements and stable isotopes. This protocol will allow the reseachers to address three questions: How are elemental levels in diet translated to elemental levels in bone?; in this context which elements interact, either antagonistically or synergistically?; can a multielement profile specify several components in the diet? Archaeologists attempt to reconstruct past lifeways and one key aspect of this involves past subsistence techniques. Because many materials, such as plant remains, are poorly preserved in the archaeological record past diet is extremely difficult to determine. Human skeletal remains are often recovered in the course of archaeological excavation and analysis indicates that these bones appear to preserve dietary information. For example levels of strontium seem inversely correlated with proportion of meat in the diet. However it is not understood just what these relations are. For this reason Dr. Lambert's research is of great archaeological significance It may provide researchers with an important new tool.