Chance Meeting Solves Medical Puzzle
UPI
___
Manchester (England):
Scientists have finally discovered why a newborn boy in the Netherlands died five years ago of a disease that caused his skin to peel off.
Professor David Garrod of Manchester University heard about the case while attending a meeting in France, the BBC reported. When Garrod heard the medical team that treated the boy describe his horrifying symptoms, he realized his own research into desmosomes -- the structures that bind skin, heart and other tissues -- could be the key.
Garrod suggested to the Dutch doctors that the boy might have had defective desmoplakin, which binds the desmosomes to supporting structures. Professor Marcel Jonkman confirmed the boy's parents both have a recessive gene for defective desmoplakin.
Nov 20, 2005
UPI
___
Manchester (England):
Scientists have finally discovered why a newborn boy in the Netherlands died five years ago of a disease that caused his skin to peel off.
Professor David Garrod of Manchester University heard about the case while attending a meeting in France, the BBC reported. When Garrod heard the medical team that treated the boy describe his horrifying symptoms, he realized his own research into desmosomes -- the structures that bind skin, heart and other tissues -- could be the key.
Garrod suggested to the Dutch doctors that the boy might have had defective desmoplakin, which binds the desmosomes to supporting structures. Professor Marcel Jonkman confirmed the boy's parents both have a recessive gene for defective desmoplakin.
Nov 20, 2005
