Merkel cells and the individuality of friction ridge skin

Can Cheiromancy Predict Mean Survival or Fatality of a Patient with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis?

Background  The past three decades have seen palmistry as an interface to human health. There have been no previously organized attempts in utilizing this knowledge to predict the state of disease.

Objective  Due to unavailability of any biological marker for diagnosing amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) till date, we attempt to examine whether palmistry could be used for detecting the onset and survival of patient suffering from ALS.

Methods  Patients suffering from ALS attending the neurology outpatient department at Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India were selected for study. Palm photographs were obtained from all patients including controls after their consent. Patients suffering from other comorbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, migraine, as well as smokers and nonsmokers were included in the study. Twenty-six ALS patients, 30 neurological controls, and 34 healthy age matched controls were recruited in the study. Retrospective analysis of the palm pictures based on blinding method was performed by academically qualified palmists.

Results  The results demonstrated the need for further studies in the subject even though the observations made were independent by both the palmists.

Conclusion  This study opens new vistas for cheiromancy to be further explored for analysis in larger samples.

An anisotropic interaction model for simulating fingerprints

Evidence suggests that both the interaction of so-called Merkel cells and the epidermal stress distribution play an important role in the formation of fingerprint patterns during pregnancy. To model the formation of fingerprint patterns in a biologically meaningful way these patterns have to become stationary. For the creation of synthetic fingerprints it is also very desirable that rescaling the model parameters leads to rescaled distances between the stationary fingerprint ridges. Based on these observations, as well as the model introduced by Kücken and Champod we propose a new model for the formation of fingerprint patterns during pregnancy. In this anisotropic interaction model the interaction forces not only depend on the distance vector between the cells and the model parameters, but additionally on an underlying tensor field, representing a stress field. This dependence on the tensor field leads to complex, anisotropic patterns. We study the resulting stationary patterns both analytically and numerically. In particular, we show that fingerprint patterns can be modeled as stationary solutions by choosing the underlying tensor field appropriately.

Adaptive self-organization in the embryo: its importance to adult anatomy and to tissue engineering

The anatomy of healthy humans shows much minor variation, and twin‐studies reveal at least some of this variation cannot be explained genetically. A plausible explanation is that fine‐scale anatomy is not specified directly in a genetic programme, but emerges from self‐organizing behaviours of cells that, for example, place a new capillary where it happens to be needed to prevent local hypoxia. Self‐organizing behaviour can be identified by manipulating growing tissues (e.g. putting them under a spatial constraint) and observing an adaptive change that conserves the character of the normal tissue while altering its precise anatomy. Self‐organization can be practically useful in tissue engineering but it is limited; generally, it is good for producing realistic small‐scale anatomy but large‐scale features will be missing. This is because self‐organizing organoids miss critical symmetry‐breaking influences present in the embryo: simulating these artificially, for example, with local signal sources, makes anatomy realistic even at large scales. A growing understanding of the mechanisms of self‐organization is now allowing synthetic biologists to take their first tentative steps towards constructing artificial multicellular systems that spontaneously organize themselves into patterns, which may soon be extended into three‐dimensional shapes.

The dynamic anatomy and patterning of skin

The skin is often viewed as a static barrier that protects the body from the outside world. Emphasis on studying the skin's architecture and biomechanics in the context of restoring skin movement and function is often ignored. It is fundamentally important that if skin is to be modelled or developed, we do not only focus on the biology of skin but also aim to understand its mechanical properties and structure in living dynamic tissue. In this review, we describe the architecture of skin and patterning seen in skin as viewed from a surgical perspective and highlight aspects of the microanatomy that have never fully been realized and provide evidence or concepts that support the importance of studying living skin's dynamic behaviour. We highlight how the structure of the skin has evolved to allow the body dynamic form and function, and how injury, disease or ageing results in a dramatic changes to the microarchitecture and changes physical characteristics of skin. Therefore, appreciating the dynamic microanatomy of skin from the deep fascia through to the skin surface is vitally important from a dermatological and surgical perspective. This focus provides an alternative perspective and approach to addressing skin pathologies and skin ageing.