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Association of protein intakes and variation of diet‐scalp hair nitrogen isotopic discrimination factor in P apua New G uinea highlanders
Author(s) -
Naito Yuichi I.,
Morita Ayako,
Natsuhara Kazumi,
Tadokoro Kiyoshi,
Baba Jun,
Odani Shingo,
Tomitsuka Eriko,
Igai Katsura,
Tsutaya Takumi,
Yoneda Minoru,
Greenhill Andrew R.,
Horwood Paul F.,
Soli Kevin W.,
Phuanukoon Suparat,
Siba Peter M.,
Umezaki Masahiro
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
american journal of physical anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.146
H-Index - 119
eISSN - 1096-8644
pISSN - 0002-9483
DOI - 10.1002/ajpa.22798
Subject(s) - scalp , urea , nitrogen , biology , zoology , chemistry , biochemistry , anatomy , organic chemistry
Objectives: We present new nitrogen isotopic discrimination factor between diets and scalp hairs (Δ 15 N Hair‐Diet : δ 15 N Hair – δ 15 N Diet ) for indigenous residents in three communities in the Papua New Guinea Highlands who consumed various amounts and qualities of protein. The Δ 15 N is important for precise evaluation of the dietary habits of human populations; in both contemporary and traditional lifestyles. Several hypotheses have been proposed regarding factors that affect Δ 15 N values, based largely on observations from animal feeding experiments. However, variations and factors controlling Δ 15 N in humans are not well understood, mainly due to the difficulty of controlling the diets of participants. Materials and Methods: These residents were studied because they have maintained relatively traditional dietary habits, which allow quantitative recording of diets. Δ 15 N was estimated by comparing hair δ 15 N values to mean dietary δ 15 N values calculated from the recorded intake of each food item and their δ 15 N values. Results: The results showed that: i) there was a significant difference in Δ 15 N among study locations (3.9 ± 0.9‰ for most urbanized, 5.2 ± 1.0‰ for medium and 5.0 ± 0.9‰ for least urbanized communities; range = 1.2–7.3‰ for all participants); and ii) estimated Δ 15 N values were negatively correlated with several indicators of animal protein intake (% nitrogen in diet: range = 0.9–7.6%). Discussion: We hypothesize that a combination of several factors, which presumably included urea recycling and amino acid and protein recycling and/or de novo synthesis during metabolic processes, altered the Δ 15 N values of the participants. Am J Phys Anthropol 158:359–370, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.