engleski

Dermatoglyphs today and tomorrow

Dermatoglyphs are epidermal ridges on the fingers, palms and soles. They are polygenic traits with high heritability that develop during the early intrauterine period, from weeks 7 to 21 of gestation, and do not change thereafter. The basic characteristic features are arch, ulnar loop, radial loop and whorl on the fingers, patterns on the thenar, interdigital areas, and hypothenar on the palms and soles, and calcar of the soles. Fingerprints have been used for many years as an identification sign. In 1894, in Argentina, Croat Ivan Vučetić introduced fingerprints into police investigations. There have been many reports of population studies in of dermatoglyphs, which have become very popular because different populations differ in the frequencies of the patterns. As a result, dermatoglyphic researchers have used them to follow population migrations. Isolated populations, such as islands or closed mountain valleys, often differ from larger adjacent populations due to genetic drift. Also, there are sex differences in patterns and dermatoglyphs may be used in the detection of anomalies of sex chromosomes (e.g. Turner and, Klinefelter syndromes). Until recently, dermatoglyphics were also used in paternity identification and in determining the zigozity zygosity of twins. At the beginning of the last century, clinical dermatoglyphic studies were used to identify chromosomal defects and similar malformations. Analyzing dermatoglyphic traits in patients with diseases of unknown etiology, which were found to be poliygenetically determined and that the instability of genes under the influence of environmental factors cause disease. Years later, using DNA analysis it was confirmed that most of the diseases were determined by more than one gene marker. In our research we analyzed different types of carcinomas including lung, larynx, thyroid gland, breast and confirmed that dermatoglyphic traits differed between groups of patients, a healthy control group, and a group of psychiatricly patients (i.e.schizophrenia, bipolar affective disorder, autism, borderline personality disorder, etc.). We confirmed that due to inherent genetic instability, influenced by different negative environmental factors (such as stress, air or food pollution), genes could change and provoke diseases in adulthood. Therefore, more detailed dermatoglyphic analysis of different disorders in our population, might have potential diagnostic value and potential significance for understanding human developmental biology.

dermatoglyphics, polygenetic traits, diseases of unknown etiology

nije evidentirano