Sex determination using humeral dimensions in a sample from KwaZulu-Natal: an osteometric study / 대한해부학회지

The morphological characteristics of the humeral bone has been investigated in recent times with studies showing varying degrees of sexual dimorphism. Osteologists and forensic scientists have shown that sex determination methods based on skeletal measurements are population specific, and these population-specific variations are present in many body dimensions. The present study aims to establish sex identification using osteometric standards for the humerus in a contemporary KwaZulu-Natal population. A total of 11 parameters were measured in a sample of n=211 humeri (males, 113; females, 98) from the osteological collection in the Discipline of Clinical Anatomy, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. The difference in means for nearly all variables were found to be significantly higher in males compared to females (P<0.01) with the most effective single parameter for predicting sex being the vertical head diameter having an accuracy of 82.5%. Stepwise discriminant analysis increased the overall accuracy rate to 87.7% when all measurements were jointly applied. We conclude that the humerus is an important bone which can be reliably used for sex determination based on standard metric methods despite minor tribal or ancestral differences amongst an otherwise homogenous population.

Post-treatment with Telfairia occidentalis seed oil attenuates alcohol-induced testicular damage in Sprague-Dawley rats

Long term alcohol use has been implicated in men with sexual disorders including suppression of testosterone levels as well as testicular morphological changes. This research investigated the ability of Telfairia occidentalis [T. O.] to attenuate the damaging effects of alcohol on the testicular parameters. Thirty male Sprague-Dawley rats, 170-190 grams were divided into 6 groups, A to F and treated with distilled water [DW] for the period of 8 weeks [positive control group A], ethanol for 2 weeks followed with DW for 6 weeks [group B] [negative control], ethanol alone for 2 weeks [group C] while others received ethanol for 2 weeks, followed with 200 [group D], 400 [group E] and 600 mg/kg [group F] of T. O. for 6 weeks. Testicular histological sections showed that ethanol produced marked loss of testicular germ cells after two weeks of administration. T. O [200 mg/kg body weight] was not able to attenuate this microanatomical distortion when compared with control groups, but at 400 mg/kg body weight, T. O reversed the ethanol's effects with resultant significant increase in sperm count and motility [p<0.05], serum testosterone levels [p<0.05], and testicular weight [p<0.05]. However, at 600 mg/kg dosage, there was marked depletion of testicular germ cells with atrophied seminiferous tubules and a decrease in semen parameters and testicular weight. Our result suggests that T. O promotes the regeneration of testicular germ cells and improves semen quality at a certain critical dose. Hence, T. O has a potential of reversing ethanol induced testicular damage