Evolutionary perspective on the genetics of osteoporosis

This review paper in Human Genetics discusses osteoporosis from an evolutionary and genetic perspective, and sometimes reads like a list of personal health guidelines (which is ok, I guess). I'm usually pretty reserved when it comes to criticizing papers on my blog, but I'm going to make an exception and say that this paper was somewhat disappointing, especially given that it was published in a high level journal: Human Genetics.
Ok, so first the obligatory point about how we are "stone age bodies living in a novel, modern world":

" ... current demographic trends will have the effect of altering what was once a positive adaptation for distinctive human bipedality into a serious set of “collateral” pathology among the modern elderly (Latimer 2005)."

...then a brief mention on the source of population differences: (I don't like the "Africans" generalization)

"Therefore, Africans more frequently have lactose intolerance, probably because they do not need as much vitamin D and calcium to maintain their (relatively strong) skeletons. On the contrary, skin depigmentation and high consumption of dairy products do not seem to protect Northern Europeans from fractures."

They also go on to explain the mechanism by which consumption of whole grain and milk products likely aggravates the risk of osteoporosis, which is pretty interesting.

He then briefly moves on to the genetics of osteoporosis with this statement which I find a bit hard to swallow, maybe just because I'm a too much of a hard-core adaptationist:

"It seems accurate to assume that if osteoporosis has a genetic determinant, its genetics will share peculiarity with the aging per se, being an example of “post-reproductive” genetics (Capri et al. 2008), which is difficult to explain by a selection process."

He argues that there would have been no selection against osteoporotic phenotypes since these cause problems later in life and would have no effect early in life, an argument which leaves me unconvinced:

"Therefore, children with a “pro-osteoporotic” bone architecture and lower bone mineralization were not selected against—which means, they were able to transfer their genes further on."

At the end of the paper are statements about the future of evolution in humans (which generally make me cringe):

"Is natural selection still a driving force in humans, given that our survival is often less dependent on genes than on technology?"

Osteoporosis: an evolutionary perspective
David Karasik
Human Genetics early online

Abstract: Increased life expectancy has led to an overall aging of the population and greater numbers of elderly people. Therefore, the number of people with osteoporosis has increased substantially, accompanied with an epidemic of hip fractures. Osteoporosis is an age-related systemic condition that naturally occurs, among mammals, only in humans. Osteoporosis is known to be highly heritable. However, assuming a genetic determinant for this post-reproductive disease to be transmitted from one generation to the next is counter-intuitive, based on the principles of human evolution, I will attempt to provide an explanation of the phenomenon from the point of view of evolution, selection, and changed environment in humans, which contributed to human longevity, while on other hand, contribute to diseases of civilization, including osteoporosis. There is a need to delve into evolution of human species in search for adaptive patterns to a specific environment that humans are operating in the last couple of millennia, to clarify whether “good” and “bad” genes exist, and how to find and correct them. The answer to the above questions will help us to identify causes of the current epidemic of osteoporosis and to pin-point a tailored treatment.

Predicting unobserved phenotypes from genotypic data

This looks really interesting. The goal is to use whole genome SNP data to predict three phenotypes in mice (coal color, % of CD8+ cells, cellular hemoglobin), using "reversible jump MCMC". According to this website this is how RJMCMC works:

"– RJMCMC randomly “walks around” the space of possible model structures by changing one edge at a time – called structurallearning.
– At each step in its “walk”, all of the model parameters are updated
– called parametrical learning.
– At the end, you have a list of all of the model structures it visited at each step and their corresponding set of parameters."

They cite this recent paper that I posted about a few months ago that proposes a different way of looking simultaneously at the association between a collection of SNPs and some trait.
So, in this paper, they seem to be able to make decent predictions about these traits using about 12,000 SNPs in each of 2,300 mice. The correlations between observed and expexted phenotypes, using only genotype data, are in the range of .33 to .85.
There's really a lot of interesting things in this paper and I don't have to go over all of them.
I'll just end by mentioning that, as the authors state, if we were to do this in humans we would probably need many more markers and more individuals since the mice used in this experiment were from inbred lines with extended LD.

Predicting Unobserved Phenotypes for Complex Traits from Whole-Genome SNP Data
Sang Hong Lee, Julius H. J. van der Werf, Ben J. Hayes, Michael E. Goddard, Peter M. Visscher
PLoS Genet 4(10): e1000231.

Abstract: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) for quantitative traits and disease in humans and other species have shown that there are many loci that contribute to the observed resemblance between relatives. GWAS to date have mostly focussed on discovery of genes or regulatory regions habouring causative polymorphisms, using single SNP analyses and setting stringent type-I error rates. Genome-wide marker data can also be used to predict genetic values and therefore predict phenotypes. Here, we propose a Bayesian method that utilises all marker data simultaneously to predict phenotypes. We apply the method to three traits: coat colour, %CD8 cells, and mean cell haemoglobin, measured in a heterogeneous stock mouse population. We find that a model that contains both additive and dominance effects, estimated from genome-wide marker data, is successful in predicting unobserved phenotypes and is significantly better than a prediction based upon the phenotypes of close relatives. Correlations between predicted and actual phenotypes were in the range of 0.4 to 0.9 when half of the number of families was used to estimate effects and the other half for prediction. Posterior probabilities of SNPs being associated with coat colour were high for regions that are known to contain loci for this trait. The prediction of phenotypes using large samples, high-density SNP data, and appropriate statistical methodology is feasible and can be applied in human medicine, forensics, or artificial selection programs.

Another study on European genetic structure

...this time focused on Northern Europe, and especially Finland, using 250,000 SNPs, STRUCTURE, MDS plots and other measures of population differentiation.
see Dienekes' post for STRUCTURE output, and other comments.

I wanted to do this!! - Eating behavior at Chinese buffets

Dang!!, I've always wanted to do a study like this, but these researchers beat me to the punch. The things they look at here are pretty interesting (and frankly, pretty funny), but they could have looked at the types of foods people were eating (ex: meat vs. other), SES, ethnicity etc.... Of course that would entail more complicated data collection... This reminds me of this great study.

Eating behavior and obesity at Chinese buffets.
Wansink B, Payne CR.
Obesity 2008 Aug;16(8):1957-60.

Abstract: The aim of this study was to investigate whether the eating behaviors of people at all-you-can-eat Chinese buffets differs depending upon their body mass. The resulting findings could confirm or disconfirm previous laboratory research that has been criticized for being artificial. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: Trained observers recorded the height, weight, sex, age, and behavior of 213 patrons at Chinese all-you-can-eat restaurants. Various seating, serving, and eating behaviors were then compared across BMI levels. RESULTS: Patrons with higher levels of BMI were more likely to be associated with using larger plates vs. smaller plates (OR 1.16, P less than 0.01) and facing the buffet vs. side or back (OR 1.10, P less than 0.001). Patrons with higher levels of BMI were less likely to be associated with using chopsticks vs. forks (OR 0.90,P less than 0.05), browsing the buffet before eating vs. serving themselves immediately (OR 0.92, P less than 0.001), and having a napkin on their lap vs. not having a napkin on their lap (OR 0.92, P less than 0.01). Patrons with lower BMIs left more food on their plates (10.6% vs. 6.0%, P less than 0.05) and chewed more per bite of food (14.8 vs. 11.9, P less than 0.001). DISCUSSION: These observational findings of real-world behavior provide support for laboratory studies that have otherwise been dismissed as artificial.

Hispanics and Alzheimer's: article in New York Times

It looks like Hispanics have a disproportionately high prevalence of Alzheimer's and tend to develop it earlier, according to research cited in this New York Times article.
Genetic reasons are not favored, at least according to what the author of the article, Pam Belluck has gleaned:

"It is not that Hispanics are more genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s, say experts, who say the diversity of ethnicities that make up Hispanics or Latinos make a genetic explanation unlikely."

...and what this researcher has found:

Dr. Rafael A. Lantigua, a professor of clinical medicine at Columbia University Medical School, said, “There’s no gene at this point that we can say this is just for Latinos.” Dr. Lantigua added that one gene that increased Alzheimer’s risk was less prevalent in Latinos than non-Hispanic whites.

More favored explanations are SES, "cultural dislocation", and depression.
The author goes on to describe several studies that have examined the etiology of population differences in Alzheimer's, one of them finding that higher acculturation to American society among Mexican Americans was associated with higher Alzheimer's risk.

Selection may not be responsible for worldwide variation in circadian clock genes

some suggestive evidence, at most (look here for related post about PER2 gene variation):

Genetic differences in human circadian clock genes among worldwide populations.
Ciarleglio CM, Ryckman KK, Servick SV, Hida A, Robbins S, Wells N, Hicks J, Larson SA, Wiedermann JP, Carver K, Hamilton N, Kidd KK, Kidd JR, Smith JR, Friedlaender J, McMahon DG, Williams SM, Summar ML, Johnson CH.
J Biol Rhythms. 2008 Aug;23(4):330-40.

Abstract: The daily biological clock regulates the timing of sleep and physiological processes that are of fundamental importance to human health, performance, and well-being. Environmental parameters of relevance to biological clocks include (1) daily fluctuations in light intensity and temperature, and (2) seasonal changes in photoperiod (day length) and temperature; these parameters vary dramatically as a function of latitude and locale. In wide-ranging species other than humans, natural selection has genetically optimized adaptiveness along latitudinal clines. Is there evidence for selection of clock gene alleles along latitudinal/photoperiod clines in humans? A number of polymorphisms in the human clock genes Per2, Per3, Clock, and AANAT have been reported as alleles that could be subject to selection. In addition, this investigation discovered several novel polymorphisms in the human Arntl and Arntl2 genes that may have functional impact upon the expression of these clock transcriptional factors. The frequency distribution of these clock gene polymorphisms is reported for diverse populations of African Americans, European Americans, Ghanaians, Han Chinese, and Papua New Guineans (including 5 subpopulations within Papua New Guinea). There are significant differences in the frequency distribution of clock gene alleles among these populations. Population genetic analyses indicate that these differences are likely to arise from genetic drift rather than from natural selection.

Lipid profiles and African ancestry

Previous research has found that African ancestry is associated with healthier lipid profiles, compared to European ancestry, and that people of African descent in the UK have lower coronary heart disease compared to whites. Since sex also mediates the risk of cardiovascular disease, this study investigates four variants on the Y-chromosome, in "579 men of different ethnic groups (blacks, South Asians, and whites) from UK and in 301 whites in Italy." All Black and South Asian men were first generation immigrants, so that might be why they don't do any kind of adjustment for differing admixture proportions. Given their conclusion:

"In our study, the men of black African origin carrying the A alleles of both TBL1Y and USP9Y had a more favorable lipoprotein profile, characterized by lower levels of serum triglycerides and higher levels of HDL-cholesterol, thus indicating the existence of a “cardio-protective haplotype.” In contrast, in white men, both from the UK and Italy, and in people of South Asian origin, the lipoprotein profiles were not affected by these genotypes."

...they then have a pretty good discussion of the weaknesses and alternative explanations of their findings. They don't really discuss any kind of adaptive or evolutionary explanation for the population differences, other than to mention, regarding which alleles are ancestral, that:

"The data presented here suggest that G allele of TBL1Y and T allele of USP9Y, reported as the wild-type alleles in whites (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/SNP) may be derived from the A alleles of both genes, which are the most frequent in black people of African origin."

Genetic Variants of Y Chromosome Are Associated With a Protective Lipid Profile in Black Men
Paola Russo; Alfonso Siani; Michelle A. Miller; Sharada Karanam; Teresa Esposito; Fernando Gianfrancesco; Gianvincenzo Barba; Fabio Lauria; Pasquale Strazzullo;Francesco P. Cappuccio
Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology. 2008;28:1569.

Abstract Objective— Gender and ethnicity modulate the phenotypic expression of cardiovascular risk factors. In particular, men are at higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases compared to women, whereas black populations of African origin display reduced mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) as compared to both whites and South Asians. Because the male-specific region (MSY) of the human Y chromosome is an obvious candidate for gender-related differences in the development of cardiovascular diseases, we aimed to identify genetic variants of MSY influencing cardiovascular risk profile in different ethnic groups. Methods and Results— We genotyped 4 polymorphisms of MSY (HindIII±, rs768983 of TBL1Y, rs3212292 of USP9Y, and rs9341273 of UTY genes) in 579 men of different ethnic groups (blacks, South Asians, and whites) from UK and in 301 whites in Italy. We found that the TBL1YA USP9YA haplotype, present only in blacks in whom it represents the most frequent allelic combinations (AA: n=125; all other combinations: n=45), was associated with lower levels of triglycerides (P=0.025) and higher levels of HDL-cholesterol (P=0.005) as compared to the other haplotypes. Conclusion— The TBL1YA USP9YA haplotype of the Y chromosome, present only in black people of African origin, attributes a favorable lipoprotein pattern, likely to contribute to their reduced susceptibility to coronary heart disease. The study evaluated the association of genetic variants of the male-specific region of the Y chromosome with cardiovascular risk factors in different ethnic groups. The most frequently observed haplotype in black people was associated with a favorable lipoprotein pattern, thus contributing to the lower rate of cardiovascular diseases in blacks.

Baldness genetics

Dan at Genetic Future has a great post on a couple of recent genome-wide association studies on male pattern baldness.

Genetic determinants of Vitamin D levels among Hispanics and African Americans

This study has a large diverse sample and they look at the association between variants in three vitamin D related genes and vitamin D levels in the blood. They find an association between variants in the DBP (vitamin D Binding Protein gene) and plasma levels of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D in all three populations. I wonder how these polymorphisms differ in frequency and haplotype structure between groups.

Genetic and environmental determinants of 25-hydroxyvitamin D and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D levels in Hispanic and African Americans.

Corinne D. Engelman, Tasha E. Fingerlin, Carl D. Langefeld, Pamela J. Hicks, Stephen S. Rich, Lynne E. Wagenknecht, Donald W. Bowden and Jill M. Norris

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism Vol. 93, No. 9 3381-3388

Context: Vitamin D deficiency is associated with many adverse health outcomes, yet little is known about the genetic epidemiology of vitamin D or its metabolites. Objective: Our objective was to examine the relationship among three vitamin D-related genes and levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] and 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1,25(OH)2D] in Hispanics (HAs) and African Americans (AAs). Design and Setting: The cross-sectional Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Family Study recruited and examined subjects in: Los Angeles, California (AAs; 513 individuals from 42 families); San Luis Valley (SLV), Colorado (HAs; 513 individuals from 30 families); and San Antonio (SA), Texas (HAs; 504 individuals from 58 families). Main Outcome Measures: Plasma levels of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D were measured. Results: Levels of 25(OH)D were highest in SLV-HAs [18.3 ± 7.7 ng/ml (45.7 ± 19.2 nmol/liter)], lower in SA-HAs [14.6 ± 6.4 ng/ml (36.4 ± 16.0 nmol/liter)], and lowest in AAs [11.0 ± 5.4 ng/ml (27.5 ± 13.5 nmol/liter)]. Levels of 1,25(OH)2D were similar in AAs [43.5 ± 13.9 pg/ml (113.1 ± 36.1 pmol/liter)] and SLV-HAs [43.2 ± 13.3 pg/ml (112.3 ± 34.6 pmol/liter)], but higher in SA-HAs [48.6 ± 17.0 pg/ml (126.4 ± 44.2 pmol/liter)]. After adjusting for gender and age within the site, two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the vitamin D binding protein gene (DBP), rs4588 and rs7041, were associated with 25(OH)D, and one SNP in the DBP, rs4588, was associated with 1,25(OH)2D at all three study centers. Conclusions: SNPs in the DBP are associated with levels of 25(OH)D and 1,25(OH)2D in HA and AA participants in the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Family Study.

Why was lactase persistence selected for?

This paper has been discussed by Razib at GNXP, and probably others. I thought I would take a closer look at it myself.
One of the main findings here is the north-south gradient within England in the frequency of the lactase persistence allele.
But they also examine relationships between this genotype and health measures in order to uncover the mechanism by which lactase persistence may have been selected for.
For example, did lactase persistence arise due to the benefits (sugar, protein, fat) or because it enabled one to avoid the ill effects of lactose non-persitence (adverse health reactions)? In this paper, they test for associations between the LCT genotype and various health-related measures.
They also have a good discussion about the selection pressures that may have led to the lactase persistence trait being favored. Among the hypotheses, many of which I had never heard of, as outlined in the paper:

1) "nutritional (and survival) advantage of milk consumption in populations that have milk availability"

2) "the calcium absorption hypothesis which considers the ability to use milk as of particular importance for high latitude
populations with low ultraviolet light exposure who are thus subject to potential vitamin D deficiency and poor calcium absorption and for whom the calcium absorption-stimulating effect of lactose would increase fitness."

3) "a reduced diarrhoeal disease mortality hypothesis that considers that, in populations that have become high consumers of milk, this consumption will increase risk of diarrhoeal disease in individuals who are not lactase persistent and thus select for lactase persistence"

4) specifically for African populations: "in arid regions with animal husbandry practices allowing access to milk, the ability to use milk has a selective advantage through the provision of water and electrolytes"

5) "the enhanced fertility by early weaning hypothesis that postulates that lactase persistence leads to earlier weaning and that earlier cessation of breastfeeding reduces the infertile period following each birth"

It doesn't seem like this study provides any conclusive or even suggestive evidence in favor or against any of these hypotheses, although there is some data that does goes against the diarrhea hypothesis:

"the consequences of prolonged childhood diarrhoeal disease that might be expected in survivors – shorter body height, leg length and perhaps higher blood pressure – were not seen in our data"

Lactase persistence-related genetic variant: population substructure and health outcomes
George Davey Smith, Debbie A Lawlor, Nic J Timpson, Jamil Baban, Matt Kiessling, Ian N M Day and Shah Ebrahim
European Journal of Human Genetics advance online

Abstract: Lactase persistence is an autosomal-dominant trait that is common in European-derived populations. A basic tendency for lactase persistence to increase from the southeast to the northwest across European populations has been noted, but such trends within countries have not been extensively studied. We genotyped the C/T-13910 variant (rs4988235) that constitutes the putatively causal allele for lactase persistence (T allele representing persistence) in a general population sample of 3344 women aged 60–79 years from 23 towns across Britain. We found an overall frequency of 0.253 for the C (lactase non-persistence) allele, but with considerable gradients of decreasing frequency from the south to the north and from the east to the west of Britain for this allele. Daily sunlight was positively related to C (non-persistence) allele prevalence. However, sunlight exposure and latitude are strongly correlated, and it was not possible to identify which is the primary factor statistically underlying the distribution of lactase persistence. The C/T-13910 variant (rs4988235) was not related to drinking milk or bone health (although drinking milk itself was protective of bone health), and was essentially unrelated to a wide range of other lifestyle, health and demographic characteristics. One exception was general health being rated as being poor or fair, for which there was an odds ratio of 1.38 (1.04, 1.84) for women homozygous for the C allele; on adjustment for latitude and longitude of place of birth, this attenuated to 1.19 (0.87, 1.64). The lactase persistence variant could contribute to the examination of data for the existence of, and then statistical control for, population substructure in genetic association studies.

Adipose tissue expandability explains onset of metabolic syndrome?

When studying disease traits it is always preferable to understand all elements of the etiological pathway.
A recent paper in PLoS Biology titled "It's Not How Fat You Are, It's What You Do with It That Counts" describes the "Adipose Expandability Hypothesis" as a way of explaining why some individuals develop metabolic syndrome and why others don't, regardless of how obese they are. What matters is your ability to store fat. If you're good at it you can stave off further health complications. If you're not good at it, you start storing fat in organ tissue, leading to further health complications even if you have no excess body fat.

Predicting hair color from genes

It seems like we're getting closer to understanding the genetic basis of traits like skin, hair and eye pigmentation. Although it is generally assumed that it will be difficult to fully grasp the genetics of complex traits, it could be within reach in the near-term for these types of traits. Understanding the genetic basis of these traits will provide some guiding principles for uncovering the genetic basis of more 'complex' complex traits, as well as about the evolutionary genetic process, population histories, and interactions with environmental factors.
So what do we learn from this paper (see abstract below) on the association between SLC45A2 variants and hair color among Polish subjects?
First, from the intro, with respect to predicting red hair color:

"Nowadays, red hair phenotype is being predicted using
assays that rely on examination of the single MC1R gene, and this allows correct inference in more than 90% of cases (Grimes et al. 2001; Branicki et al. 2007)."

Back to this study, they basically find a rare variant in SLC45A2 that increases a person's odds of having black hair by about seven.

Interestingly:

"However, in the present study, 3.6% of red-haired individuals were found to have the L374 allele associated with darker pigmentation. All of them had two MC1R alterations, which are considered as major function mutations strongly affecting receptor performance (data not present). All these individuals had fair skin and blue eyes. This indicates a predominant role of the MC1R gene."

Association of the SLC45A2 gene with physiological human hair colour variation
Wojciech Branicki, Urszula Brudnik, Jolanta Draus-Barini, Tomasz Kupiec and Anna Wojas-Pelc
Journal of Human Genetics Early online

Abstract: Pigmentation is a complex physical trait with multiple genes involved. Several genes have already been associated with natural differences in human pigmentation. The SLC45A2 gene encoding a transporter protein involved in melanin synthesis is considered to be one of the most important genes affecting human pigmentation. Here we present results of an association study conducted on a population of European origin, where the relationship between two non-synonymous polymorphisms in the SLC45A2 gene — rs26722 (E272K) and rs16891982 (L374F) — and different pigmentation traits was examined. The study revealed a significant association between both variable sites and normal variation in hair colour. Only L374F remained significantly associated with hair colour when both SNPs were included in a logistic regression model. No association with other pigmentation traits was detected in this population sample. Our results indicate that the rare allele L374 significantly increases the possibility of having black hair colour (OR = 7.05) and thus may be considered as a future marker for black hair colour prediction.

Ancient origin of genes associated with human genetic disease

via Dienekes, an interesting paper on the temporal origin of disease-related genes.

An ancient evolutionary origin of genes associated with human genetic diseases
Tomislav Domazet-Loo and Diethard Tautz
Molecular Biology and Evolution

Abstract: Several thousand genes in the human genome have been linked to a heritable genetic disease. The majority of these appear to be non-essential genes (i.e. are not embryonically lethal when inactivated) and one could therefore speculate that they are late additions in the evolutionary lineage towards humans. Contrary to this expectation, we find that they are in fact significantly over-represented among the genes that have emerged during the early evolution of the metazoa. Using a phylostratigraphic approach, we have studied the evolutionary emergence of such genes at 19 phylogenetic levels. The majority of disease genes was already present in the eukaryotic ancestor and the second largest number has arisen around the time of evolution of multicellularity. Conversely, genes specific to the mammalian lineage are highly underrepresented. Hence, genes involved in genetic diseases are not simply a random subset of all genes in the genome, but are biased towards ancient genes.

Ethnicity, genetic variant at KCNMB1, sex, and asthma

An african-specific functional polymorphism in KCNMB1 shows sex-specific association with asthma severity.
Seibold MA, Wang B, Eng C, Kumar G, Beckman KB, Sen S, Choudhry S, Meade K, Lenoir M, Watson HG, Thyne S, Williams LK, Kumar R, Weiss KB, Grammer LC, Avila PC, Schleimer RP, Burchard EG, Brenner R.
Hum Mol Genetics 2008 Sep 1;17(17):2681-90.

Abstract: A highly heritable and reproducible measure of asthma severity is baseline pulmonary function. Pulmonary function is largely determined by airway smooth muscle (ASM) tone and contractility. The large conductance, voltage and calcium-activated potassium (BK) channel negatively regulates smooth muscle tone and contraction in ASM. The modulatory subunit of BK channels, the beta1-subunit, is critical for proper activation of BK channels in smooth muscle and has shown sex hormone specific regulation. We hypothesized that KCNMB1 genetic variants in African Americans may underlie differences in bronchial smooth muscle tone and thus pulmonary function, possibly in a sex-specific manner. Through resequencing of the KCNMB1 gene we identified several common variants including a novel African-specific coding polymorphism (C818T, R140W). The C818T SNP and four other KCNMB1 variants were genotyped in two independent groups of African American asthmatics (n = 509) and tested for association with the pulmonary function measure--forced expiratory volume (FEV(1)) % of predicted value. The 818T allele is associated with a clinically significant decline (-13%) in FEV(1) in both cohorts of asthmatics among males but not females (P(combined) = 0.0003). Patch clamp electrophysiology studies of the BK channel expressed with the 140Trp variant of the beta1-subunit demonstrated significantly reduced channel openings, predicted by the loss of pulmonary function observed. African American male asthmatics carrying the 818T allele (10% of population) are potentially at risk for greater airway obstruction and increased asthma morbidity. Female asthmatics may be insulated from the deleterious effects of the 818T allele by estrogen-mediated upregulation in BK channel activity.

Is ethnic self-identification a good predictor of health risks?

Ability of Ethnic Self-Identification to Partition Modifiable Health Risk Among US Residents of Mexican Ancestry.

Barger SD, Gallo LC.

Am J Public Health. 2008 Sep 17

Objectives. We examined the relationship between ethnic self-identification and the partitioning of health risk within a Mexican American population. Methods. We combined data from the 2000 to 2002 National Health Interview Surveys to obtain a large (N=10044) sample of US residents of Mexican ancestry. We evaluated health risk, defined as self-reported current smoking, overweight, and obesity, and compared the predictive strength of health risk correlates across self-identified Mexican and Mexican American participants. Results. Self-identified Mexican participants were less likely to smoke (odds ratio [OR]=0.70; 95% confidence interval[CI] = 0.60, 0.83; P<.001) and to be obese (OR=0.66; 95% CI=0.56, 0.77; P<.001) than were self-identified Mexican American participants. Within-group analyses found that sociodemographic predictors had inconsistent and even contradictory patterns of association with health risk across the 2 subgroups. Health risk was consistently lower among immigrants relative to US-born participants. Ethnic self-identification effects were independent of socioeconomic status. Conclusions. US residents of Mexican ancestry showed substantial within-group differences in health risk and risk correlates. Ethnic self-identification is a promising strategy to clarify differential risk and may help resolve apparent discrepancies in health risk correlates in this literature.

Protective factor against breast cancer in Black women?

Breast cancer incidence has been found to be higher in those with higher SES, and incidence is highest among Whites, followed by Blacks, then Asians and Hispanics. Using several previous studies, this study finds that the disparity in breast cancer risk between ethnic groups can be accounted for by differences in SES, except for the disparity between Blacks and others.

"In contrast, for the black population, seven of the eight
analyzed datasets showed no difference in the incidence
of breast cancer at highest level of SES compared to the
lowest level, with only one dataset demonstrating a statistically significant disparity (data set 1: IRR 1.39, lower limit of 95% CI=1.04). This suggests that, as opposed to the apparent contributory effect of high SES on breast cancer risk in white, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific-Islander women, the risk of breast cancer in black women may not be significantly modified by SES."

in the conclusion:

"As for black women, the overall lack of statistically significant incidence rate ratios in Table 1 suggests that SES effects do not play an important role in modifying the risk of breast cancer in this population. This suggestion is supported by Chlebowski’s analysis, in which adjustment for SES-correlated breast cancer risk factors failed to eliminate the differencein hazard ratio of between black women and women of other races. Taken together, these findings imply the presence of a protective factor, which is not modified by SES, against breast cancer in black women."

There's a brief mention at the end about the grade and aggressiveness of breast cancer among Black women.

Disparities in breast cancer incidence across racial/ethnic strata and socioeconomic status: a systematic review
Vainshtein J.
J Natl Med Assoc. 2008 Jul;100(7):833-9.

OBJECTIVES: A higher incidence of breast cancer has been reported both in white women and women of higher socioeconomic status (SES) compared to women of other races and lower SES, respectively. We explored whether differences in SES can account for disparities in breast cancer incidence between races. METHODS: We identified several studies published between 1990 and 2007 that addressed disparities in breast cancer incidence across racial and socioeconomic strata. For each study, we calculated incidence rate ratios (IRRs) for breast cancer incidence in the highest strata to lowest strata of SES for white, black, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific-Islander populations. We then used these IRRs to compare trends in SES and breast cancer incidence between races and across studies. RESULTS: The studies we identified revealed that the magnitude of the disparity in breast cancer incidence between races decreases with increasing SES. While individual census-tract based studies' methods of assessing the association between SES and breast cancer incidence did not identify consistent trends between races, adjustment for risk factors closely correlated with SES eliminated the statistical differences in breast cancer incidence between women of white, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific-Islander, but not black, ethnicity. CONCLUSION: We found that racial differences in breast cancer incidence can largely be accounted for by ethnic differences in SES among white, Hispanic and Asian/Pacific-Islander women, but not between these populations and black women. We further highlight important differences in methodology between previously published studies that may account for their disparate findings.

Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Blog Carnival

I'm happy to be hosting the 50th edition of the Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Blog Carnival!
We've got a wide array of Anthropology topics. I'll go from social/cultural anthropology, then into archaeology, and then into biological anthropology.

Daniel at Neuroanthropology shares with us Alesha Sivartha's collection of drawings representing the domains of life and culture that brains might be devoted to dealing with. This is interesting in the sense that evolutionary psychologists have argued that the brain is not like a general purpose computer, but rather like a Swiss army knife with domain specific mechanisms evolved to deal with specific problems such as face recognition, social relationships, mental maps, etc..

Daniel has another interesting post about Race in the Race for President of the US, which reminds us that racial dynamics are never far from the lived experience of Americans.

Magnus Reuterdahl at Testimony at the Spade discusses Mark Twain's visit to Jonkoping, Sweden.

Terry Toohill, guest blogger at Remote Central, discusses the evidence and misconceptions surrounding the processes of evolution, and might I add, provides plenty of references.

Martin at Aardvarchaeology shares his experience with the trials and tribulations of archaeological digs in Sweden.

At the Southeast Asian Archaeology Newblog, we see that six new Neolithic burials from Sarawak from the Niah cave complex have been recently put on display.

"More significantly, the skeletons are of the Australomelanasoid affinity, which means they were natives of Sundaland (the geological land shelf on which much of island Southeast Asia sits on) and possibly represent the continuous habitation of the cave site rather part of the migratory group originating from Southern China that is thought to populate Southeast Asia in this period" (from 2-3 thousand years ago)

The past couple of weeks has seen several stories about Neanderthals.
As usual, John Hawks has a wealth of information and insight:

• on the marine diet of Neanderthals
• the complete mtDNA sequence of a Neanderthal
• the new National Geographic series called "Neanderthal Code"
  

Still on the Neanderthal topic, Julien at A Very Remote Period Indeed reviews the new National Geographic series on Neanderthals. He focuses on the evidence for whether there were hostile or peaceful relations between modern Humans and Neanderthals, on the relative (and complementary) merit of fossil, archaeological and genetic data in interpreting what happened in the past. He closes with a discussion about the reconstruction of a face of a Neanderthal female, discussed on other blogs as well.

Afarensis also discusses a paper about Neanderthal brain size and maturation which argues that Neanderthals grew quickly but matured later than modern humans, suggesting that their overall life history was perhaps slower paced than that of modern humans. Afarensis also discusses the use of marine food resources by Neanderthals, before the most recent piece of evidence came out in PNAS.

Dienekes has his usual dizzying array of posts from a wide variety of topics in evolutionary and molecular anthropology.
I'll just point out the post on Stonehenge and how it has been dated more accurately, and how it has been suggested that it was a healing center.

Razib at GNXP has a great post on a recent NYT article about David Goldstein on the HapMap, selection and race. Many other bloggers (John Hawks, Genetic Future etc...) have also commented on this article. In this article David Goldstein questions the efficiency of the process by which we currently look for the genetic basis for disease (and intelligence).

Finally, let me point you to Kambiz's always excellent and thorough Anthropology.net blog. He has recently posted about a new study published in PLoS Genetics that examines how genes involved in the immune system can predict human mating patterns.

Calling for Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Blog Carnival submissions

It's time for the 50th edition of the Four Stone Hearth Anthropology Blog Carnival, so please email your submissions to me at yannatunmdotedu.

The Fourth Stone Hearth is a blog carnival that specializes in anthropology in the widest (American) sense of that word. Here, anthropology is the study of humankind, throughout all times and places, focusing primarily on four lines of research:

• archaeology
• socio-cultural anthropology
• bio-physical anthropology
• linguistic anthropology

Each one of these subfields is a stone in our hearth.

You need not be a blogger that specializes in anthropology to host or participate, but the posts submitted should relate to some aspect of anthropology.

Are Indians destined to be diabetic?

I came across this interesting commentary paper that discusses whether there any particularities about diabetes risk among Indians (in India that is; living in New Mexico forces me to make that clarification). It discusses diabetes from an evolutionary perspective, as well as the link between mitochondrial function and the etiology of diabetes.

Comparing genetic admixture methods

Comparison of Statistical Methods for Estimating Genetic Admixture in a Lung Cancer Study of African Americans and Latinos.
Aldrich MC, Selvin S, Hansen HM, Barcellos LF, Wrensch MR, Sison JD, Quesenberry CP, Kittles RA, Silva G, Buffler PA, Seldin MF, Wiencke JK.
Am J Epidemiol. 2008 Sep 12. [Epub ahead of print]

Abstract: A variety of methods are available for estimating genetic admixture proportions in populations; however, few investigators have conducted detailed comparisons using empirical data. The authors characterized admixture proportions among self-identified African Americans (n = 535) and Latinos (n = 412) living in the San Francisco Bay Area who participated in a lung cancer case-control study (1998-2003). Individual estimates of genetic ancestry based on 184 informative markers were obtained from a Bayesian approach and 2 maximum likelihood approaches and were compared using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and Bland-Altman plots. Case-control differences in individual admixture proportions were assessed using 2-sample t tests and logistic regression analysis. Results indicated that Bayesian and frequentist approaches to estimating admixture provide similar estimates and inferences. No difference was observed in admixture proportions between African-American cases and controls, but Latino cases and controls significantly differed according to Amerindian and European genetic ancestry. Differences in admixture proportions between Latino cases and controls were not unexpected, since cases were more likely to have been born in the United States. Genetic admixture proportions provide a quantitative measure of ancestry differences among Latinos that can be used in analyses of genetic risk factors.