Thomas B, McIntosh D, Fildes T, Smith L, Hargrave F, Islam M, Thompson T, Layfield R, Scott D, Shaw B, Burrell C L, Gonzalez S, Taylor S
Mass Spectrometry Research Group, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L69 3GJ, UK.
Norton Priory Museum, Runcorn WA7 1SX, UK.
Bone Rep. 2017 Nov 1;7:137-144. doi: 10.1016/j.bonr.2017.10.005. eCollection 2017 Dec.
Second-harmonic generation imaging (SHG) captures triple helical collagen molecules near tissue surfaces. Biomedical research routinely utilizes various imaging software packages to quantify SHG signals for collagen content and distribution estimates in modern tissue samples including bone. For the first time using SHG, samples of modern, medieval, and ice age bones were imaged to test the applicability of SHG to ancient bone from a variety of ages, settings, and taxa. Four independent techniques including Raman spectroscopy, FTIR spectroscopy, radiocarbon dating protocols, and mass spectrometry-based protein sequencing, confirm the presence of protein, consistent with the hypothesis that SHG imaging detects ancient bone collagen. These results suggest that future studies have the potential to use SHG imaging to provide new insights into the composition of ancient bone, to characterize ancient bone disorders, to investigate collagen preservation within and between various taxa, and to monitor collagen decay regimes in different depositional environments.
二次谐波产生成像（SHG）可捕捉组织表面附近的三螺旋胶原分子。生物医学研究通常使用各种成像软件包来量化SHG信号，以估计现代组织样本（包括骨骼）中的胶原蛋白含量和分布。首次使用SHG对现代、中世纪和冰河时代的骨骼样本进行成像，以测试SHG对来自不同年代、环境和分类群的古代骨骼的适用性。包括拉曼光谱、傅里叶变换红外光谱、放射性碳测年协议和基于质谱的蛋白质测序在内的四种独立技术，证实了蛋白质的存在，这与SHG成像检测古代骨胶原的假设一致。这些结果表明，未来的研究有可能利用SHG成像来深入了解古代骨骼的组成，表征古代骨骼疾病，研究不同分类群内部和之间的胶原保存情况，以及监测不同沉积环境中的胶原衰减情况。
