Tag Archives: chromosomes

Researchers identify a mechanism that stops progression of abnormal cells into cancer

Although the link between abnormal cells and tumor suppressor pathways — like that mediated by the well known p53 gene — has been firmly established, the critical steps in between are not well understood. According to the authors, whose work appears in Cell, this work completes at least one of the missing links. Normal human cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, but this number doubles to 46 pairs as a cell prepares to divide…

Tests reveal 66-year-old who lived as a man actually is a woman

A 66-year-old who lived his whole life as a man was given a surprising diagnosis after visiting the doctor in Hong Kong with a swollen abdomen - he was a woman. Doctors realized the patient was female after they found the swelling came from a large cyst on an ovary, the Hong Kong Medical Journal reported. The condition was the result of two rare genetic disorders. The subject had Turner syndrome, which affects girls and women and results from a problem with the chromosomes, with characteristics including infertility and short stature. But he also had congenital adrenal hyperplasia, increasing male hormones and making the patient, who had a beard and a “micropenis”, appear like a man. “Were it not due to the huge ovarian cyst, his intriguing medical condition might never have been exposed,” seven doctors from two of the city's hospitals wrote in the study published on Monday. The doctors said there have been only six cases where both genetic disorders have been reported in medical literature. Turner Syndrome on its own affects only one in 2500 to 3000 females. Click for more from news.com.au. source : http://www.foxnews.com/health/2013/06/04/hong-kong-man-66-finds-out-woman/