Typing Late Prehistoric Cows and Bulls—Osteology and Genetics of Cattle at the Eketorp Ringfort on the Öland Island in Sweden

Human management of livestock and the presence of different breeds have been discussed in archaeozoology and animal breeding. Traditionally osteometrics has been the main tool in addressing these questions. We combine osteometrics with molecular sex identifications of 104 of 340 morphometrically analysed bones in order to investigate the use of cattle at the Eketorp ringfort on the Öland island in Sweden. The fort is dated to 300–1220/50 A.D., revealing three different building phases. In order to investigate specific patterns and shifts through time in the use of cattle the genetic data is evaluated in relation to osteometric patterns and occurrence of pathologies on cattle metapodia. Males were genotyped for a Y-chromosomal SNP in UTY19 that separates the two major haplogroups, Y1 and Y2, in taurine cattle. A subset of the samples were also genotyped for one SNP involved in coat coloration (MC1R), one SNP putatively involved in resistance to cattle plague (TLR4), and one SNP in intron 5 of the IGF-1 gene that has been associated to size and reproduction

Influence of species and anatomical location on chondrocyte expansion

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Bovine articular cartilage is often used to study chondrocytes <it>in vitro</it>. It is difficult to correlate <it>in vitro </it>studies using bovine chondrocytes with <it>in vivo </it>studies using other species such as rabbits and sheep. The aim of this investigation was to study the effect of species, anatomical location and exogenous growth factors on chondrocyte proliferation <it>in vitro</it>.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Equine (EQ), bovine (BO) and ovine (OV) articular chondrocytes from metacarpophalangeal (fetlock (F)), shoulder (S) and knee (K) joints were cultured in tissue culture flasks. Growth factors (rh-FGFb: 10 ng/ml; rh-TGFβ: 5 ng/ml) were added to the cultures at days 2 and 4. On day 6, cells were counted and flow cytometry analysis was performed to determine cell size and granularity. A three factor ANOVA with paired Tukey's correction was used for statistical analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After 6 days in culture, cell numbers had increased in control groups of EQ-F, OV-S, OV-F and BO-F chondrocytes. The addition of rh-FGFb led to the highest increase in cell numbers in the BO-F, followed by EQ-F and OV-S chondrocytes. The addition of rh-TGFβ increased cell numbers in EQ-S and EQ-F chondrocytes, but showed nearly no effect on EQ-K, OV-K, OV-S, OV-F and BO-F chondrocytes. There was an overall difference with the addition of growth factors between the different species and joints.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Different proliferation profiles of chondrocytes from the various joints were found. Therefore, we recommend performing <it>in vitro </it>studies using the species and site where subsequent <it>in vivo </it>studies are planned.</p