Possible Brucellosis in an Early Hominin Skeleton from Sterkfontein, South Africa

We report on the paleopathological analysis of the partial skeleton of the late Pliocene hominin species Australopithecus africanus Stw 431 from Sterkfontein, South Africa. A previous study noted the presence of lesions on vertebral bodies diagnosed as spondylosis deformans due to trauma. Instead, we suggest that these lesions are pathological changes due to the initial phases of an infectious disease, brucellosis. The macroscopic, microscopic and radiological appearance of the lytic lesions of the lumbar vertebrae is consistent with brucellosis. The hypothesis of brucellosis (most often associated with the consumption of animal proteins) in a 2.4 to 2.8 million year old hominid has a host of important implications for human evolution. The consumption of meat has been regarded an important factor in supporting, directing or altering human evolution. Perhaps the earliest (up to 2.5 million years ago) paleontological evidence for meat eating consists of cut marks on animal remains and stone tools that could have made these marks. Now with the hypothesis of brucellosis in A. africanus, we may have evidence of occasional meat eating directly linked to a fossil hominin

Beneficial Effect of Methylprednisolone on Cardiac Myocytes in a Rat Model of Severe Brain Injury

Cardiac injury, occurred after traumatic brain injury (TBI), has been recognized for more than a century. Bcl-2 is a key regulatory component of the mitochondrial cell death pathway, and its overexpression is cytoprotective in many cell types. The therapeutic agents, which induce the expression of bcl-2 protein, might provide a new therapy to prevent cardiac myocyte damage following TBI. In this study, we investigated whether methylprednisolone I sodium succinate (MPSS) influences the expression of bcl-2 in the heart. Wistar-Albino female rats underwent TBI (300 g/cm) generated by the weight-drop method, and were left untreated (n = 6) or treated with either MPSS (30 mg/kg) (n = 6) or vehicle (albumin solution) (n = 6). The heart was isolated from each animal with TBI. For comparison, the hearts were isolated from sham-operated (n = 6) and control rats (n = 6). The relative expression of bcl-2 mRNA in the heart was quantitated by real-time polymerase chain reaction. We also assessed lipid peroxidation in the heart tissue by determining the concentration of thiobarbituric acid-reactive substances (TBARs) as an indicator of tissue damage. The bcl-2 expression level was significantly higher in the hearts of MPSS-treated rats compared to that of other TBI groups (p < 0.0001). Moreover, TBI increased the lipid peroxidation in the heart, which was significantly reduced by the treatment with MPSS (p < 0.0001). These findings provide evidence for the efficacy of MPSS in protection of cardiac myocytes to achieve optimal heart donation after TBI in heart transplantation. (c) 2005 Tohoku University Medical Press.WoSScopu