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Scientific Reports Jan 2022Yingpan Man, is one of the most exquisitely preserved mummies found in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Here links between Yingpan Man and the Silk Road...
Yingpan Man, is one of the most exquisitely preserved mummies found in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China. Here links between Yingpan Man and the Silk Road are explored through a detailed isotopic and bioarchaeological investigation of his life history. Analytical techniques of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur stable isotope ratio analysis on hair, teeth, muscle and bones as well as associated animal and plant remains, radiocarbon dating and starch grain analysis of dental calculus are presented to visualize never before seen aspects of Yingpan Man's life, including: environment, breastfeeding and weaning practices, adolescent and adult diet, disease and nutritional status as well as season of death. Furthermore, in combination with a detailed review of his associated grave goods, this research examines the social status and identity of Yingpan Man, and demonstrates the profound impact and cultural fusion that the Silk Road had upon the peoples of Xinjiang and Eurasia.
PubMed: 35027587
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-04383-5 -
Journal of Veterinary Dentistry Jun 2019Dental concerns are some of the most common health problems affecting companion animals. A variety of foods, treats, and chews comprising different mechanical and...
BACKGROUND
Dental concerns are some of the most common health problems affecting companion animals. A variety of foods, treats, and chews comprising different mechanical and chemical technologies have been investigated as a means of promoting oral health. Here, we investigate the chemical technology, lactic acid added to a commercially available food, for its ability to inhibit dental plaque, calculus, and tooth stain accumulation in cats.
METHODS
Two separate feeding trials assessed the utility of a nutritionally complete feline maintenance food supplemented with lactic acid to reduce oral substrate accumulation (dental plaque, calculus, and tooth stain) in cats. After a calibration study identified high and low dental plaque formers, 45 cats were randomized to 1 of 2 test groups (food with 1.2% lactic acid supplementation) or control (food without lactic acid supplementation) groups, stratified based on their calibration scores. Data were collected on a monthly basis for 3 months. The second study randomly assigned 24 cats to either the test or control groups for 1 year, with data collected at the 6- and 12-month time points.
RESULTS
In the 3-month study, reductions in dental plaque, calculus, and tooth stain accumulations were observed at the 2-month assessment in both test groups compared with control ( < .05 for test group 2). The 1-year study showed that these reductions in oral substrate accumulation persisted through the 6- and 12-month time points ( < .05).
CONCLUSIONS
Taken together, these studies demonstrate that lactic acid supplemented at 1.2% in a feline maintenance food significantly inhibits oral substrate accumulation.
Topics: Animals; Cat Diseases; Cats; Coloring Agents; Dental Calculus; Dental Plaque; Dental Plaque Index; Dietary Supplements; Gingivitis; Lactic Acid
PubMed: 31564198
DOI: 10.1177/0898756419873986 -
International Journal of Molecular... Nov 2022Dental calculus is a solid deposit that forms and accumulates on the tooth surface, entrapping oral microorganisms, biomolecules, and other micro-debris found in the...
Dental calculus is a solid deposit that forms and accumulates on the tooth surface, entrapping oral microorganisms, biomolecules, and other micro-debris found in the oral cavity. A mass spectrometry analysis of its protein content opens a vista into the subject's diet, oral flora, and even some aspects of health, thus providing new insight and expanding our knowledge of archaic cultures. Multiple experimental protocols have been proposed for the optimal extraction of proteins from dental calculus. Herein, we compared various experimental conditions in order to calibrate and validate a protocol for protein extraction. Our results show that a high concentration of acetic acid followed by mechanical crushing and sonication provided the highest protein yield, while acetone precipitation enabled the identification of more distinct proteins. We validated this protocol using archeological samples, identifying human and microbial proteins in specimens from the eighth and seventeenth centuries (approximately 250-1300 years ago). These findings demonstrate that the developed protocol is useful for studying excavated archaeological samples and that it might be utilized to explore the biohistory, dietary habits, and microbiome of archaic populations.
Topics: Humans; Calibration; Dental Calculus; Microbiota; Archaeology; Mass Spectrometry
PubMed: 36430863
DOI: 10.3390/ijms232214387 -
Scientific Reports Nov 2019Historic calcified dental plaque (dental calculus) can provide a unique perspective into the health status of past human populations but currently no studies have...
Historic calcified dental plaque (dental calculus) can provide a unique perspective into the health status of past human populations but currently no studies have focused on the oral microbial ecosystem of other primates, including our closest relatives, within the hominids. Here we use ancient DNA extraction methods, shotgun library preparation, and next generation Illumina sequencing to examine oral microbiota from 19 dental calculus samples recovered from wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii) who died in Gombe National Park, Tanzania. The resulting sequences were trimmed for quality, analyzed using MALT, MEGAN, and alignment scripts, and integrated with previously published dental calculus microbiome data. We report significant differences in oral microbiome phyla between chimpanzees and anatomically modern humans (AMH), with chimpanzees possessing a greater abundance of Bacteroidetes and Fusobacteria, and AMH showing higher Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Our results suggest that by using an enterotype clustering method, results cluster largely based on host species. These clusters are driven by Porphyromonas and Fusobacterium genera in chimpanzees and Haemophilus and Streptococcus in AMH. Additionally, we compare a nearly complete Porphyromonas gingivalis genome to previously published genomes recovered from human gingiva to gain perspective on evolutionary relationships across host species. Finally, using shotgun sequence data we assessed indicators of diet from DNA in calculus and suggest exercising caution when making assertions related to host lifestyle. These results showcase core differences between host species and stress the importance of continued sequencing of nonhuman primate microbiomes in order to fully understand the complexity of their oral ecologies.
Topics: Animals; Cluster Analysis; DNA, Ancient; DNA, Bacterial; Dental Plaque; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; Metagenome; Microbiota; Mouth; Pan troglodytes; Parks, Recreational; Phylogeny; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; Tanzania
PubMed: 31758037
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-53802-1 -
Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health 2022Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders (hereafter respectfully referred to as Indigenous Australians) experience a high burden of chronic non-communicable...
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders (hereafter respectfully referred to as Indigenous Australians) experience a high burden of chronic non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Increased NCD risk is linked to oral diseases mediated by the oral microbiota, a microbial community influenced by both vertical transmission and lifestyle factors. As an initial step towards understanding the oral microbiota as a factor in Indigenous health, we present the first investigation of oral microbiota in Indigenous Australian adults.
METHODOLOGY
Dental calculus samples from Indigenous Australians with periodontal disease (PD; = 13) and non-Indigenous individuals both with ( = 19) and without PD ( = 20) were characterized using 16S ribosomal RNA gene amplicon sequencing. Alpha and beta diversity, differentially abundant microbial taxa and taxa unique to different participant groups were analysed using QIIME2.
RESULTS
Samples from Indigenous Australians were more phylogenetically diverse (Kruskal-Wallis = 19.86, = 8.3 × 10), differed significantly in composition from non-Indigenous samples (PERMANOVA pseudo- = 10.42, = 0.001) and contained a relatively high proportion of unique taxa not previously reported in the human oral microbiota (e.g. Endomicrobia). These patterns were robust to stratification by PD status. Oral microbiota diversity and composition also differed between Indigenous individuals living in different geographic regions.
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
Indigenous Australians may harbour unique oral microbiota shaped by their long relationships with Country (ancestral homelands). Our findings have implications for understanding the origins of oral and systemic NCDs and for the inclusion of Indigenous peoples in microbiota research, highlighting the microbiota as a novel field of enquiry to improve Indigenous health.
PubMed: 36032329
DOI: 10.1093/emph/eoac024 -
Scientific Reports Dec 2019Dental calculus, or mineralized plaque, represents a record of ancient biomolecules and food residues. Recently, ancient metagenomics made it possible to unlock the...
Dental calculus, or mineralized plaque, represents a record of ancient biomolecules and food residues. Recently, ancient metagenomics made it possible to unlock the wealth of microbial and dietary information of dental calculus to reconstruct oral microbiomes and lifestyle of humans from the past. Although most studies have so far focused on ancient humans, dental calculus is known to form in a wide range of animals, potentially informing on how human-animal interactions changed the animals' oral ecology. Here, we characterise the oral microbiome of six ancient Egyptian baboons held in captivity during the late Pharaonic era (9-6 centuries BC) and of two historical baboons from a zoo via shotgun metagenomics. We demonstrate that these captive baboons possessed a distinctive oral microbiome when compared to ancient and modern humans, Neanderthals and a wild chimpanzee. These results may reflect the omnivorous dietary behaviour of baboons, even though health, food provisioning and other factors associated with human management, may have changed the baboons' oral microbiome. We anticipate our study to be a starting point for more extensive studies on ancient animal oral microbiomes to examine the extent to which domestication and human management in the past affected the diet, health and lifestyle of target animals.
Topics: Animals; DNA, Ancient; Dental Calculus; Egypt; Humans; Metagenome; Microbiota; Neanderthals; Pan troglodytes; Papio
PubMed: 31873124
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-56074-x -
Brazilian Oral Research 2020Relevant public policies in oral health have been implemented in Brazil since 2004. Changes in the epidemiological status of dental caries are expected, mainly in the...
Relevant public policies in oral health have been implemented in Brazil since 2004. Changes in the epidemiological status of dental caries are expected, mainly in the child population. This study aimed to assess the dental caries experience and associated factors among 12-year-old children in the state of São Paulo, Brazil. A cross-sectional population-based study was conducted with data obtained from 415 cities, including a total of 26,325 schoolchildren who were included by the double-stage cluster technique, by lot and by systematic sampling. The statistical model included data from the São Paulo Oral Health Survey (SBSP 2015), the Human Development Index (HDI) and the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). A theoretical-conceptual model categorized the variables into three blocks, namely, contextual (HDI, SVI, region of residence and fluoridation of water), individual (sex and ethnicity) and periodontal conditions (gingival bleeding, dental calculus and the presence of periodontal pockets), for association with the experience of caries (DMFT). Statistically significant associations were verified by hierarchical multivariate logistic (L) and Poisson (P) regression analyses (p < 0.05). The results showed that 57.7% of 12-year-old children had caries experience. Factors that determined a greater prevalence of dental caries in both models were nonwhite ethnicity (ORL = 1.113, ORP = 1.154) and the presence of gingival bleeding (ORL = 1.204, ORP = 1.255). Male children (ORL = 0.920 ORP = 0.859) and higher HDI (ORL = 0.022), ORP = 0.040) were associated with a lower prevalence of dental caries experience. Water fluoridation was associated with a lower DMFT index (ORP = 0.766). Dental caries experience is still associated with social inequalities at different levels. Policymakers should direct interventions towards reducing inequalities and the prevalence of dental caries among 12-year-old children.
Topics: Brazil; Child; Cross-Sectional Studies; DMF Index; Dental Caries; Female; Fluoridation; Humans; Logistic Models; Male; Multivariate Analysis; Periodontal Index; Prevalence; Risk Factors; Sex Distribution; Socioeconomic Factors; Vulnerable Populations
PubMed: 32049111
DOI: 10.1590/1807-3107bor-2020.vol34.0010 -
F1000Research 2023Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have played a critical role in shaping human evolution and societies. Despite the exceptional impact of NCDs economically and socially,... (Review)
Review
Noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) have played a critical role in shaping human evolution and societies. Despite the exceptional impact of NCDs economically and socially, little is known about the prevalence or impact of these diseases in the past as most do not leave distinguishing features on the human skeleton and are not directly associated with unique pathogens. The inability to identify NCDs in antiquity precludes researchers from investigating how changes in diet, lifestyle, and environments modulate NCD risks in specific populations and from linking evolutionary processes to modern health patterns and disparities. In this review, we highlight how recent advances in ancient DNA (aDNA) sequencing and analytical methodologies may now make it possible to reconstruct NCD-related oral microbiome traits in past populations, thereby providing the first proxies for ancient NCD risk. First, we review the direct and indirect associations between modern oral microbiomes and NCDs, specifically cardiovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, rheumatoid arthritis, and Alzheimer's disease. We then discuss how oral microbiome features associated with NCDs in modern populations may be used to identify previously unstudied sources of morbidity and mortality differences in ancient groups. Finally, we conclude with an outline of the challenges and limitations of employing this approach, as well as how they might be circumvented. While significant experimental work is needed to verify that ancient oral microbiome markers are indeed associated with quantifiable health and survivorship outcomes, this new approach is a promising path forward for evolutionary health research.
Topics: Humans; Noncommunicable Diseases; Microbiota; Diabetes Mellitus; Diet; Prevalence
PubMed: 37065506
DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.129036.2 -
Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) May 2021Dental calculus analysis can be a valuable source of archaeological knowledge, since it preserves not only microbial and host biomolecules but also dietary and...
Dental calculus analysis can be a valuable source of archaeological knowledge, since it preserves not only microbial and host biomolecules but also dietary and environmental debris, as well as metabolic products likely originating from dietary and craft activities. Here we described GC-MS analysis of a set of historic dental calculus samples from the front teeth of the mandibles of seven individuals found in 17th- and 18th-century graves in the city of Rzeszow, located in South-eastern Poland. We have found that only saturated fatty acids, which are characteristic for fats of animal origin, were present in the tested samples. Our preliminary results indicate that the diet of modern-period inhabitants of Rzeszow was rich in animal products, such as meat and dairy products.
Topics: Adult; Archaeology; Dental Calculus; Dietary Fats; Fatty Acids; Female; Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; History, 17th Century; History, 18th Century; Humans; Male; Poland
PubMed: 34063539
DOI: 10.3390/molecules26102951 -
Dentistry Journal Oct 2022Based on the 2018 classification of periodontal disease, a series of articles have been published describing the decision points of periodontal therapy and how the... (Review)
Review
BACKGROUND
Based on the 2018 classification of periodontal disease, a series of articles have been published describing the decision points of periodontal therapy and how the findings collected at those decision points can be used as guidelines for periodontal therapy. The articles are reviewed with a focus on the finding of inadequate calculus removal at the decision points and how that finding impacts treatment outcomes.
METHODS
A narrative review of the literature discussing the influence of calculus on inflammation was performed and the effects of inadequate removal of calculus during periodontal therapy were analyzed in light of the 2018 classification of periodontal disease, the decision points of periodontal therapy, and the guidelines of periodontal therapy.
RESULTS
The published literature supports that calculus is a major risk factor for periodontal inflammation. Recent studies indicate that the pathologic risk of calculus goes beyond the retention of biofilm and may represent a different pathophysiologic pathway for periodontal disease separate from the direct action of biofilm. The inadequate removal of calculus is a factor in the failure of periodontal therapy.
CONCLUSIONS
The inadequate removal of calculus plays an important role in the frequent failure of non-surgical periodontal therapy to eliminate inflammation.
PubMed: 36286005
DOI: 10.3390/dj10100195