The impact of environmental stress on minor congenital defects

A sample of 117 adult individuals from the Lisbon Identified Skeletal Collection (aka Luís Lopes Collection) was used to test the association between six minor congenital defects (MCD) and stress markers. The goal was to assess if any of the tested MCD might be considered a useful indicator of stress in early life. The variables included in the study are manubrium mesosternal joint fusion, sternum hyperplasia, sternal aperture, sternal caudal clefting, notochord defects and hypoglossal canal, cribra orbitalia, vertebral neural canal size, femur and tibia maximum length. Sternal caudal clefting has a statistically significant correlation with femur length, in males. The direction of the correlation indicates that males with sternal caudal clefting have longer femurs. Sternum hyperplasia is correlated with anteroposterior and transverse diameters of thoracic vertebrae, for males. Males with sternum hyperplasia have narrower AP diameters and wider TR diameters. Double hypoglossal canal is correlated with TR diameters of thoracic vertebrae, in females. Females with double hypoglossal canal have narrower TR diameters of thoracic vertebrae. Manubrium mesosternal joint fusion, sternal aperture, notochord defects and sternal caudal clefting were not associated with any of the tested variables. Both sternum hyperplasia and double hypoglossal canal might have potential to capture environmental stress, in utero, but more studies are required to confirm this result in other collections

Biology · Environmental stress · Evolutionary biology · Bone fractures and treatments · Medicine · Psychology · Orthodontics

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