From: Dossy (dossy@panoptic.com)
Date: Sun Jun 09 2002 - 13:25:28 MDT
http://www.reutershealth.com/archive/2002/06/07/eline/links/20020607elin004.html
| Scientists zeroing in on gene for ear wax
|
| Last Updated: 2002-06-07 14:54:33 -0400 (Reuters Health)
|
| NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - While studying Japanese families with a rare
| movement disorder, researchers have discovered a region of DNA that may
| contain the gene for ear wax.
|
| A discovery of the ear wax gene could help shed light on the function of
| apocrine glands, fluid-secreting cells found throughout the body, and
| may even have implications for breast cancer. Some studies have found
| the women with a certain type of ear wax are at greater risk of
| developing breast cancer than those with another type.
|
| Ear wax, or cerumen as it is know scientifically, is produced by hair
| follicles and glands that line the ear canal and protects the ear by
| trapping dust, microorganisms and foreign particles, and prevents them
| from entering and damaging the ear. There are two types of ear
| wax--"wet" and "dry." Most whites and blacks in the US have the wet
| type, which is more brown, sticky and wet, while Asians and Native
| Americans tend to produce the dry type, that tends to be brittle and tan
| or gray.
|
| According to a report in the June 8th issue of the medical journal The
| Lancet, Dr. Hiroaki Tomita of Nagasaki University School of Medicine in
| Japan and colleagues got a stroke of luck when they came across a
| Japanese woman with a neurological condition who also had wet ear wax,
| an unusual type for a person of Asian descent.
|
| Six other members of the woman's family also had the neurological
| condition--known as paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis--as well as
| wet ear wax. In paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis, a patient
| experiences uncontrollable twisting movements of the limbs in response
| to sudden voluntary motion.
|
| The researchers then obtained DNA samples from eight Japanese families,
| 92 people in all, and searched a region of chromosome 16, where the gene
| for the neurological disorder was known to be located. They looked at 11
| different segments of the gene, and narrowed down the location for the
| gene to one particular portion.
|
| "Identification of the ear wax (gene) could contribute to further (human
| development) studies and to physiological and pathological understanding
| of the apocrine-gland development," Tomita and colleagues conclude.
| Tomita is currently at the University of California-Irvine.
Now, if they could just identify the gene for body odor ...
-- Dossy
--
Dossy Shiobara mail: dossy@panoptic.com
Panoptic Computer Network web: http://www.panoptic.com/
"He realized the fastest way to change is to laugh at your own
folly -- then you can let go and quickly move on." (p. 70)
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