Find the culprit causing hirsutism

A woman named Julia Pastrana was famous around the world in the mid-18th century thanks to the beard and hair covering her body. More than 150 years later, scientists discovered gene mutations that kept her hair tight.

Julia Pastrana's photo in a book was published in 1900. Photo: answers.com.

Julia Pastrana (1834-1860) was a hair-stricken woman in Mexico. From an early age, her face and body were covered with black fur. Pastrana's ears and nose are also larger than normal, and her teeth are uneven due to swelling.

Theodor Lent, owner of a circus, bought Pastrana from a woman and taught her to dance and play music. Pastrana toured the world under the name 'bearded lady'. This woman learns 3 languages, knows how to play the guitar and has a wonderful soprano voice. Lent then married Pastrana. During a tour in Moscow, she gave birth to a baby with facial and body hair. The child only survived for exactly 3 days. Pastrana also died 5 days later at age 26 due to postpartum complications.

Congenital hair follicle (CGHT) not only causes hair to grow all over the body with dense density, but also deforms facial features and causes swelling. Some people get sick but their benefits are normal. This disease is difficult to study because very few people have it. In the history of world medicine, only 50 cases have been recorded. Among them Julia Pastrana is the only known woman.

After analyzing the genes of members with many congenital hairs in three Chinese families and one patient who did not belong to these families, Chinese Academy of Medicine scientists discovered several defects in chromosome 17. Specifically, members of the three families do not have that chromosome. And patients who do not belong to 3 families (whose function is abnormal due to the bulging benefit) have extra fragments of DNA. This is a mutation in which DNA fragments appear many times. These defects affect 4-8 genes on chromosome 17.

'Scientists have long believed that gene mutations are the culprits that cause hair problems, but no research has found specific defects , ' said Xue Zhang, the lead researcher. Zhang and colleagues will continue to conduct other studies to understand the mechanism by which mutations in genes cause hair loss.