Modeling Clinical States and Metabolic Rhythms in Bioarcheology

Bioarcheology is cross disciplinary research encompassing the study of human remains. However, life's activities have, up till now, eluded bioarcheological investigation. We hypothesized that growth lines in hair might archive the biologic rhythms, growth rate, and metabolism during life. Computational modeling predicted the physical appearance, derived from hair growth rate, biologic rhythms, and mental state for human remains from the Roman period. The width of repeat growth intervals (RI's) on the hair, shown by confocal microscopy, allowed computation of time series of periodicities of the RI's to model growth rates of the hairs. Our results are based on four hairs from controls yielding 212 data points and the RI's of six cropped hairs from Zweeloo woman's scalp yielding 504 data points. Hair growth was, ten times faster than normal consistent with hypertrichosis. Cantú syndrome consists of hypertrichosis, dyschondrosteosis, short stature, and cardiomegaly. Sympathetic activation and enhanced metabolic state suggesting arousal was also present. Two-photon microscopy visualized preserved portions of autonomic nerve fibers surrounding the hair bulb. Scanning electron microscopy found evidence that a knife was used to cut the hair three to five days before death. Thus computational modeling enabled the elucidation of life's activities 2000 years after death in this individual with Cantu syndrome. This may have implications for archeology and forensic sciences.