Posted on 06/07/2002 1:49:43 PM PDT by Pharmboy
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.
SOURCE: The Lancet 2002;359:2000-2002.
Unfortunately, it's connected to the gene for... ahem... manly hydraulic function.
Nose hair comes first!
Hear, hear!
Then again, it could all amount to nuthin' at all...
The correct pronunciation would be "'ear, 'ear"...
"Where's the gene to turn off ear hair?" Unfortunately, it's connected to the gene for... ahem... manly hydraulic function.Um ... er ... ah ... actually ... well ... um ... my "friend" has noticed that as the quantity of his ear hair has increased, the quantity of his manly hydraulic function has decreased.
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