在6600万年前的恐龙化石中也发现了癌症

在6600万年前的恐龙化石中也发现了癌症

A type of cancer that still afflicts humans has been found in a dinosaur fossil that was unearthed in Canada, according to experts.

据专家介绍，在加拿大出土的一块恐龙化石中发现了一种至今仍困扰人类的癌症。

The fossil, which was found at the Dinosaur Provincial Park in southern Alberta, is of a small hadrosaur that was “common in the world 66-80 million years ago.” It contains Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), described as a “rare and sometimes painful disease that still afflicts humans, particularly children under the age of 10,” according to a statement from Tel Aviv University.

这具化石是在阿尔伯塔省南部的恐龙公园发现的，属于一种小型鸭嘴龙，“在距今有6千6百万到8千万年前的世界很常见”。它含有朗格汉斯细胞组织细胞增多症(LCH)，根据特拉维夫大学的一份声明，LCH被描述为“一种罕见的、有时令人痛苦的疾病，至今仍然折磨着人类，特别是10岁以下的儿童。”

“The micro-CT produces very high-resolution imaging, up to a few microns,” one of the study’s co-authors, Dr. Hila May, said in the statement. “We scanned the dinosaur vertebrae and created a computerized 3D reconstruction of the tumor and the blood vessels that fed it. The micro and macro analyses confirmed that it was, in fact, LCH. This is the first time this disease has been identified in a dinosaur.”

“微型CT可以生成高达几微米的高分辨率图像。”该研究的共同作者之一希拉·梅(Hila May)博士在声明中说。“我们扫描了恐龙的椎骨，创建了一个计算机三维重建的肿瘤和血管喂养它。微观和宏观分析证实，它实际上是LCH。这是首次在恐龙身上发现这种疾病。”

The size and shape of the cavities in the fossil are what attracted the attention of the researchers, May added.

梅补充说，化石中洞的大小和形状吸引了研究人员的注意。

“They were extremely similar to the cavities produced by tumors associated with the rare disease LCH that still exists today in humans,” May explained. “Most of the LCH-related tumors, which can be very painful, suddenly appear in the bones of children aged 2-10 years. Thankfully, these tumors disappear without intervention in many cases.”

梅解释说:“它们与罕见的LCH相关肿瘤产生的空洞极为相似，LCH在今天的人类中仍然存在。”“大多数与lch相关的肿瘤会让人非常痛苦，它们会突然出现在2-10岁儿童的骨骼中。值得庆幸的是，这些肿瘤在许多情况下无需干预就消失了。”

The discovery is surprising, not only in that the disease survived more than 60 million years, but that it is not unique to humans.

这一发现令人惊讶，不仅因为这种疾病存活了6000多万年，而且它并非人类独有。

“These kinds of studies, which are now possible thanks to innovative technology, make an important and interesting contribution to evolutionary medicine, a relatively new field of research that investigates the development and behavior of diseases over time,” Tel Aviv University professor Israel Hershkovitz added in the statement. “We are trying to understand why certain diseases survive evolution with an eye to deciphering what causes them in order to develop new and effective ways of treating them.”

特拉维夫大学教授伊斯雷尔·赫什科维茨在声明中说:“这类研究对进化医学做出了重要而有趣的贡献。进化医学是一个相对较新的研究领域，研究疾病的发展和随时间变化的行为。”“我们正试图理解为什么某些疾病在进化中幸存下来，并试图找出导致它们的原因，以便开发出新的有效的治疗方法。”

The study was published in Scientific Reports.

这项研究发表在《科学报告》上。