Browsing by Autor "Suhail Ghafoor"

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type: Item ,
    Childhood skeletal lesions common in prehistory are present in living forager-farmers and predict adult markers of immune function
    (American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2025) Amy Anderson; Aaron D. Blackwell; M Linda Sutherland; Thomas S. Kraft; J. D. Sutherland; Bret Beheim; Daniel K. Cummings; Suhail Ghafoor; Paul L. Hooper; Daniel Eid Rodríguez
    Porous cranial lesions (cribra cranii and cribra orbitalia) are widely used by archaeologists as skeletal markers of poor child health. However, their use has not been validated with systematic data from contemporary populations, where there has been little evidence of these lesions or their health relevance. Using 375 in vivo computed tomography scans from a cohort-representative sample of adults aged 40+ years from the Bolivian Amazon, among food-limited, high-mortality forager-farmers, we identified cribra cranii on 46 (12.3%) and cribra orbitalia on 23 (6%). Cribra orbitalia was associated with several hallmarks of compromised immune function, including fewer B cells, fewer naïve CD4<sup>+</sup> T cells, a lower CD4<sup>+</sup>/CD8<sup>+</sup> T cell ratio, and higher tuberculosis risk. However, neither lesion type predicted other physician-diagnosed respiratory diseases, other markers of cell-mediated immunity, or hemoglobin values. While cribra orbitalia shows promise as a skeletal indicator of health challenges, our findings do not support the continued practice of using these lesions to infer anemia in adults.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type: Item ,
    Inflammaging is minimal among forager-horticulturalists in the Bolivian Amazon
    (Royal Society, 2025) Jacob E. Aronoff; Carrie L. Jenkins; Angela R. García; Stephanie V. Koebele; Suhail Ghafoor; Kate L. Woolard; Mia Charifson; Ivan Maldonado Suarez; Daniel Eid Rodríguez; Bret Beheim
    An increase in chronic systemic inflammation in later life, termed inflammaging, is implicated in health risk. However, it is unclear whether inflammaging develops in all human populations, or if it is the product of environmental mismatch. We assessed inflammaging in Tsimane forager-horticulturalists of the Bolivian Amazon, using serum cytokines in a primarily cross-sectional sample (1134 samples from <i>n</i> = 714 individuals, age 39-94, 51.3% female). IL-6 was positively associated with age (<i>β</i> = 0.013, <i>p</i> < 0.01). However, other pro-inflammatory markers, including IL-1β and TNF-α, did not increase with age (<i>β</i> = -0.005 and <i>β</i> = -0.001, respectively). We then compared the Moseten, a neighbouring population that has experienced greater market integration (423 samples from <i>n</i> = 380 individuals, age 39-85, 48.2% female). The Moseten also showed a positive age association for IL-6 that attenuated at later ages (age <i>β</i> = 0.025, <i>p</i> < 0.01; age<sup>2</sup> <i>β</i> = -0.001, <i>p</i> < 0.05). Further, IL-1β and TNF-α were both positively associated with age (<i>β</i> = 0.021, <i>p</i> < 0.05 and <i>β</i> = 0.011, <i>p</i> < 0.01, respectively). Our results demonstrate minimal inflammaging in the Tsimane, highlighting variation across populations in this age-related process. They also suggest that inflammaging is exacerbated by lifestyle shifts.