Examination of human osteoarchaeological remains as a feasible source of polar and apolar metabolites to study past conditions

Abstract

Metabolomics is a modern tool that aids in our understanding of the molecular changes in organisms. Archaeological science is a branch of archaeology that explores different archaeological materials using modern analytical tools. Human osteoarchaeological material are a frequent finding in archaeological contexts and have the potential to offer information about previous human populations, which can be illuminating about our current condition. Using a set of samples comprising different skeletal elements and bone structures, here we explore for the first time the possibility of extracting metabolites from osteoarchaeological material. Here, a protocol for extraction and measurement of extracted polar and less-polar/apolar metabolites by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography hyphenated to high resolution mass spectrometry is presented to measure the molecules separated after a reversed phase and hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography column. Molecular information was obtained, showing that osteoarchaeological material is a viable source of molecular information for metabolomic studies.

Human Archaeological Dentin as Source of Polar and Less Polar Metabolites for Untargeted Metabolomic Research: The Case of Yersinia pestis

“…For the different untargeted metabolomic assays, the different extracts were reconstituted as described elsewhere [ 32 ]. Untargeted analyses were performed on a high-flow Acquity UPLC system coupled to a Waters Synapt G2 HDMS system (Waters Corporation, Manchester) composed of an electrospray ionisation (ESI) source (operated either in positive mode or negative mode), an ion mobility (IM) cell and a time-of-flight detector (TOF).…”

“…Quality assurance, data treatment, statistical analysis and metabolite putative annotation for metabolomic analysis were performed as described elsewhere [ 32 ].…”

“…Metabolomics-based approaches have been used to address such questions as the use of intoxicants as evidenced by residues in smoking pipes [ 22 , 23 ] and in human hair [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], to characterise the gut microbiome composition in mummies [ 27 ], to reunite a mummy with its sarcophagi [ 28 ] and to identify ancient grains [ 29 ]. To date, however, there has been extremely limited research on human skeletal remains (HSR) with only two studies using mineralised dental plaque (calculus) [ 30 , 31 ] and one on post-cranial osteological material [ 32 ]. This latter study has been particularly important in demonstrating that thousands of molecules can be detected in HSR and that there are potentially differences in the metabolome between individuals of different disease states, even though bone is susceptible to diagenesis and change while in the ground.…”

“…Archaeological dentin thus remains a novel potential source of ancient metabolomic information. Teeth, in general, preserve DNA better than less dense post-cranial materials [ 35 ] such as those used in [ 32 ] and the dental pulp chamber is a highly vascularised, proven source of endogenous human DNA and proteins and exogenous, infectious pathogens [ 36 ]. As a record of the individual’s bloodstream, ancient dental pulp could reveal intake of dietary sources, medicinal compounds and/or intoxicants as well as non-communicable and infectious disease biomarkers.…”

Smoking histories: a bioarchaeological approach to tobacco consumption in two skeletal populations from The Netherlands (1300-1829 CE)

“…Badillo-Sanchez et al. 2023 ; Bartholdy et al. 2024 ), while macroscopic, non-destructive methods have also proven to be valuable tools to address tobacco consumption, especially when dealing with larger samples.…”