Saturday, March 31, 2007
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Friday, March 09, 2007
Gene That Turns you a Golden Brown
The human gene responsible for triggering tanning in response to sunlight has been found – it is a well-known tumour-suppressor called p53.
Tanning is activated by ultraviolet light and involves the increased production of melanin pigment and its delivery to skin cells. This helps to protect the cells against the DNA damage that UV light can cause.
Researchers had previously uncovered the other stages in the tanning process, but not its initiation. David Fisher and colleagues at Harvard Medical School in Boston, US, found that UV light activates the p53 gene, which in turn activates the tanning pathway. The group also found that cultured skin cells with the p53 gene knocked out show no tanning response.
p53 was an obvious answer in retrospect, Fisher admits, because the gene is known to turn on in response to DNA damage in other tissues.
The finding can explain the occurrence of age spots – darkly pigmented areas on the skin that appear even without sun exposure. Since p53 can be triggered by other kinds of cellular stress, these spots may represent areas where p53 was activated by another process. This could include cell stressors such as chemotherapy, since "the cell doesn't know that it isn't sunshine that induced p53," says Fisher.
The Vacuum Bell
An relatively new alternative to surgery is the vacuum bell, originally invented by Klobe, a german engineer who suffered from pectus excavatum himself and reportedly cured it with his device. It consists of a bowl shaped device which fits over the depression; the air is then removed by the use of a hand pump. The vacuum created by this lifts the sternum upwards, lessening the severity of the deformity. As it is such a recent device there is currently no information as to whether it is effective in the long term.
All I can say is...thank you Mr. Klobe, you are a genius!