Ortner D J, Tuross N, Stix A I
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560.
Hum Biol. 1992 Jun;64(3):337-60.
One of the objectives of paleopathology is to clarify the role of disease in the evolution of human groups. The recovery of DNA and immunoglobulins from archeological human skeletal tissue offers a method for enhancing and expanding our knowledge about the presence and significance of disease in past human populations. DNA also might reveal the presence of genetic disease. Immunoglobulins recovered from archeological bone indicate some of the diseases to which an individual was exposed during life. This information also provides supporting evidence for anatomical observations of skeletal disease. This is illustrated by the identification of treponemal antibody in an archeological skeleton that has gross lesions suggestive of treponematosis. Similar biochemical methods could be applied to other research problems to clarify the presence of various syndromes of the inflammatory erosive arthropathies, such as rheumatoid arthritis, in New World archeological populations. Some of these syndromes are associated with DNA sequences and specific proteins that are recoverable from archeological skeletal tissue.
古病理学的目标之一是阐明疾病在人类群体进化中的作用。从考古发掘的人类骨骼组织中提取DNA和免疫球蛋白，为增进和扩展我们对过去人类群体中疾病的存在及意义的认识提供了一种方法。DNA还可能揭示遗传疾病的存在。从考古骨骼中提取的免疫球蛋白能表明个体在生前接触过的一些疾病。这些信息也为骨骼疾病的解剖学观察提供了佐证。在一具具有提示梅毒病变的大体损伤的考古骨骼中鉴定出梅毒抗体，就说明了这一点。类似的生化方法可应用于其他研究问题，以阐明新大陆考古群体中各种炎性侵蚀性关节病综合征（如类风湿性关节炎）的存在情况。其中一些综合征与可从考古骨骼组织中提取的DNA序列和特定蛋白质有关。
