Doctoral Dissertation Research: Identifying Plastic Responses in Human Skeletal Tissues through a Sensitive Developmental Windows Framework

博士论文研究：通过敏感的发育窗口框架识别人体骨骼组织的塑性反应

• 批准号: 2018997
• 负责人: James Watson
• 金额: $ 3.06万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-01 至 2022-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2018997&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Identifying; Plastic

Environmental factors exert considerable influence over processes of growth and development, and stress experienced in early life can have long-term consequences for health and mortality risk. It is therefore critical to understand when individuals are most vulnerable to stress exposures. Sensitive developmental windows (SDW) are periods in early life when energy needs are high, and developing tissues exhibit greater plasticity in response to stress. This doctoral dissertation project will examine evidence of plasticity in the human skeletal system using a SDW framework, in order to better understand how the timing of stress exposures in early life influence patterns of disease susceptibility and mortality risk over the lifespan. The intellectual impacts of this project will be the production of a novel framework in which to more clearly define the relationship between early life environments, biology, and health outcomes across the lifespan. Insights derived from this project about the lifetime impacts of developmental stress may inform research in human development and public health. The project will also facilitate training of undergraduate and graduate students in non-destructive methods of skeletal analysis that are broadly applicable across modern, historical, and archaeological contexts. This project will improve existing methods of identifying and interpreting evidence of plasticity in the skeletal system by examining a set of asymmetries in skeletal elements that capture an extended period of early child development. Evidence for plasticity will be measured through the SDW framework by calculating asymmetry indices in three skeletal samples that represent human populations engaged in different modes of subsistence, social organization, and diet (early farmers, prehistoric agriculturalists, and historic preindustrialists). These asymmetry indices will be compared across populations and assessed using childhood mortality rates, age-at-death and adult stature as covariates, so that the impact of plasticity on mortality risk over the lifespan can be evaluated. The methodology employed in this project involves non-destructive analysis of skeletal elements, providing an accessible approach to examining plasticity.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

环境因素对生长和发展过程产生了相当大的影响，并且在早期生活中所经历的压力可能会对健康和死亡风险产生长期影响。因此，了解何时最容易受到压力暴露的影响至关重要。敏感的发育窗口（SDW）是能量需求较高的早期生活中的时期，而发育的组织会响应压力而表现出更大的可塑性。该博士学位论文项目将使用SDW框架检查人类骨骼系统中可塑性的证据，以便更好地了解早期生活中压力的时机如何影响寿命中疾病敏感性和死亡率风险的模式。该项目的智力影响将是一个新型框架的生产，在该框架中，更清楚地定义了整个生命周期的早期生活环境，生物学和健康成果之间的关系。从这个项目中获得的关于发展压力的生命影响的见解可能会为人类发展和公共卫生的研究提供依据。该项目还将促进对本科生和研究生的培训，以无损的骨骼分析方法，这些方法广泛适用于现代，历史和考古背景。该项目将通过检查骨骼元素中的一组不对称性来改善识别和解释骨骼系统可塑性证据的现有方法，以捕捉早期儿童发育的长期。可塑性的证据将通过SDW框架来衡量，通过计算三个骨骼样本中的不对称指数，这些骨骼样本代表了以不同模式的生存，社会组织和饮食方式（早期农民，史前农业主义者，史前农业主义者和历史工业前主义者）。这些不对称指数将在人群之间进行比较，并使用儿童死亡率，死亡年龄和成人身材作为协变量进行评估，以便可以评估可塑性对死亡率风险的影响。该项目中采用的方法涉及对骨骼元素的非破坏性分析，提供了可访问的方法来检查可塑性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并被认为是通过基金会的知识分子和更广泛影响的评估审查标准来通过评估来获得支持的。

项目成果

Examining developmental plasticity in the skeletal system through a sensitive developmental windows framework

通过敏感的发育窗口框架检查骨骼系统的发育可塑性

• DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24338
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: American Journal of Physical Anthropology
• 影响因子: 2.8
• 作者: McPherson, Cait B.