[Correlation between genetic structure and social class in Chile].
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to F Rothhammer.
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Multivariate distance statistics were computed from 14 nonmetrical cranial variables among five prehistoric samples representing steps in the microevolutionary history of a coastal population in northern Chile. Roughly 70% of nonmetrical cranial variation was found to be explained by chronologic distance covering a period of 6,500 years. This estimate is similar to a previous one derived from craniometric data. Implications of these findings are briefly discussed.
The present study reports the results of erythrocyte antigen typing for the following systems: ABO, MN, Rh, Kell, Duffy, and Diego in roughly 180 Atacameño Indians from the oasis of Toconao, northern Chile. A subsample was tested for variation at the histocompatibility loci A, B, and C. Results agree with previous findings based on smaller samples. Caucasian admixture of the Atacameño from Toconao was estimated to be 0.056 +/- 0.022.
Aldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency, N-acetyltransferase variation and the polymorphisms of alpha 1-antitrypsin, serum cholinesterase, paraoxonase, and delta-aminolevulinic acid dehydratase were investigated in 180 Atacameño Indians from the North of Chile. The genetic predisposition of these individuals for possible atypical reactions against environmental agents and drugs, as well as general implications of these findings, are discussed.
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The association of anthropometrics, particularly hand measurements, with dermatoglyphic characters is quantified. Children with square hands exhibit higher main line indices, a-b ridge counts, and more open atd angles. Adults with broader hands have more arches. Taller individuals with larger hands present higher a-b ridge counts and leaner subjects with long narrow hands, closer atd angles. The correlation of physique and dermatoglyphics is small but if verified, suggests that at early fetal stages, factors responsible for the establishment of dermatoglyphic patterns interact with genetic determinants of adult shape that are already active.
Mahalanobis D2 statistics (with size and shape components) were computed for nine craniometric variables among five prehistoric groups representing steps in the microevolutionary history of a coastal population in Northern Chile. Roughly 80% of craniometric variation was found to be explained by chronologic distance covering a period of roughly 6500 years. Kinship decreases in this population at a relatively constant rate of 8.6 X 10(-5) per year.
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Recovery of night vision at altitude has been examined in relationship to changes of 2,3,diphosphoglycerate (DPG). It appears that, if DPG influences night adaptation, its effect is small. Inter-individual variability is large, both in terms of DPG and performance on the MESOP, the device used to measure dark adaptation.
Electrophoretic variants at 22 genetic loci in the Aymara, mestizo, and Spanish populations of northern Chile are presented, and their possible role in adaptation to hypoxic environments are discussed. Some apparently unique variants were found.
Studies of lung function in high altitude populations have suggested the influence of hypoxic environment on the development of this characteristic independent of confounding variables such as ethnicity and habitual exercise. However, often the effect of altitude on vital capacity is greater in children than adults, suggesting that more than developmental adaptation is operative. Also selective migration could account for the similarity of migrants and permanent residents at a destination altitude. To explore these problems we studied the lung function (FVC, FEV1, PFR) of 377 individuals who had migrated between altitudes in northern Chile. Migrant measurements were adjusted to those of permanent residents of appropriate age, sex and height at the altitudes of origin and destination. The measurements were then related to ethnicity (Spanish-Aymara ancestry), occupation and permanence, the latter combining information on both age at migration to and length of stay at a destination altitude. Upward migration was associated with increased chest depth, FVC and FEV1, but not height or other chest measurements. Downward migration had no significant effect. The flow-dependent test PFR was so sensitive to observer variability and occupation that it was difficult to establish its relationship to permanence. Unlike the body measurements, lung function measurements (especially PFR) tended to deviate from permanent controls at the origin altitude in a direction suggestive of selective migration, nor was permanence itself independent of ethnicity and occupation. Because of these difficulties the question of developmental adaptation in lung function may not be answerable in cross-sectional studies like the present and previous efforts, but rather in longitudinal investigations in which the control is the individual him/herself.
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Explore the source record for details and available documents.
Explore the source record for details and available documents.
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In 1972 a multidisciplinary study sought to assess the health status of the indigenous peoples of the Department of Arica in northern Chile, the Aymara, and to relate disease, morphological, physiological and biochemical variation, to the wide changes in altitude of the region. Presented here are the morphological changes which accompany age, altitude and ethnicity amoung 1047 children and adults, permanent residents of the coast, sierra and altiplano. At comparable ages, high-altitude residents were shorter, lighter and leaner but with more expansive and rounder chests than sea-level controls. None of these effects was systematically related to ethnicity (Spanish-Aymara surname), although when stature was held constant, children with greater Aymara ancestry had largest chest circumferences and longer bones. These results suggest that (1) altitude confers allometric growth changes (expensive growth of the chest and diminished growth of the structures less related to oxygen transport); and (2) size changes associated with altitude are acquired during development while shape changes may be under genetic control. Altitude appears to account for less of the variation in growth in this relatively homogeneous Chilean sample than has been reported for other Andean samples, suggesting other concomitants confounding the effects of hypoxia in Andean South America.
The sex dimorphism for adult stature is compared in four Chilean populations which differ in their Amerindian ABO blood group composition. Statistical analysis revealed a significant association between sex dimorphism and Amerindian admixture in these populations. Assuming, on one hand, that sex chromosomes have an influence on adult stature and human growth and considering, on the other, that the four populations differ in their X and Y chromosome composition as a consequence of an asymmetrical inter-racial marriage practice, it is postulated that the observed association between sex dimorphism and Amerindian gene composition is a result of this peculiar mating structure.