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

Fetal baboon sex-specific outcomes in adipocyte differentiation at 0.9 gestation in response to moderate maternal nutrient reduction

OBJECTIVE: To investigate in vitro adipocyte differentiation in baboon fetuses in response to reduced maternal nutrition. DESIGN: Cross-sectional comparison of adipocyte differentiation in normally grown fetuses and fetuses of pregnant baboons fed 70% control global diet from 30 days of pregnancy to term. SUBJECTS: Control (CTR) fetuses of ad libitum fed mothers (5 females and 5 males) and fetuses of mothers fed the 70% global diet eaten by CTR (MNR, 5 females and 5 males). The expression of genes/proteins involved in adipogenesis (PPARγ, FABP4 and adiponectin) and brown adipose tissue development (UCP1, TBX15 and COXIV) were determined in in vitro differentiated stromal-vascular cultures from subcutaneous abdominal, subcutaneous femoral, and omental adipose tissue depots. Adipocyte number per area (mm(2)) was determined histologically to assist in evaluating adipocyte size. RESULTS: Maternal suboptimal nutrition suppressed growth of male but not female fetuses and led to adipocyte hypertrophy accompanied by increased markers of white and particularly brown-type adipogenesis in male but not female fetuses. CONCLUSION: Adipose tissue responses to fetal nonhuman primate under nutrition are sexually dimorphic. While female fetuses adapt adequately, males enhance pathways involved in white and brown adipose tissue development but are unable to compensate for a delayed development of adipose tissue associated with intrauterine growth restriction. These differences need to be considered when assessing developmental programming of adiposity in response to sub-optimal maternal nutrition