An artist's impression of the iceman: a Danish-led team of researchers has used remains found in permafrost at Qeqertasussuk, Greenland, in 1986, to study aspects of the Saqqaq culture.

DICK AHLSTROM Science Editor

A few strands of hair was all it took for scientists to reconstruct both physical characteristics and a family tree for a man who lived in Greenland 4,000 years ago.

We know he was likely to have had brown eyes and type A positive blood. He had non-white skin and square front teeth shaped like shovels. These he used to chew up dinners heavily dependent on seal meat.

He had thick, dark hair but might have been unhappy to know he would be prone to early baldness.

All of this was gleaned when scientists used just a few tufts of hair to reconstruct a DNA profile of the man, named “Inuk” by the research team. The scant remains were dug out of the permafrost back in 1986 at Qeqertasussuk on the western edge of Greenland, according to the Danish-led research team which reported their discoveries this morning in the journal Nature.

The hairs are one of the very few examples of ancient human remains left behind by the Saqqaqs, the first humans to occupy Greenland. The freezing permafrost was enough to preserve Inuk’s DNA over the 4,000 years that it lay hidden in the soil with other waste next to a buried reindeer skull.

The team used the latest techniques to recover the DNA and ensure it was not contaminated with modern DNA. This is the first time that a near complete, high-quality genetic blueprint has been recovered from ancient human remains, the authors write.

It has also delivered an astounding avalanche of information about Inuk and the earliest human settlers in the North American Arctic.

The researchers were able to compare small lengths of Inuk’s DNA with modern human DNA to winkle out specific physical characteristics, for example hair and skin colour. The 4,000-year-old DNA told the team Inuk was slightly inbred, to the degree expected should two first cousins mate.

DNA from chromosome 16 told them that Inuk had a “dry type” of earwax, typical of Asian and Native American populations. The team also showed that he possessed both a metabolism and body mass index typical of a person adapted to living in a cold climate.

But the ancient DNA record told them more, settling a long-running dispute over the degree of relatedness between the Saqqaq people and modern Amerindians and Inuit.

Physical characteristics suggested they must be related but the DNA told a different story, one of a previously unknown human migration out of eastern Asia to the New World as many as 5,500 years ago.

Inuk’s DNA showed he was not closely related to Amerindians or Inuit but to Old World Arctic populations, the Koryaks and the Chukchis, the authors write.

This means there must have been a separate migration from Siberia into the New World, independent of the one that brought ancestors of the Inuit.

Effectively, this work shows that ancient DNA “can be used to identify important . . . traits of an individual from an extinct culture”, the authors conclude.

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A hair cloning technique that regenerates dormant hair follicles to produce new growth is not being recommended by the researchers who demonstrated its potential, because it is still in the early stages of development and effective hair loss treatment options are already available.

(PRWeb UK) January 28, 2010 — Researchers and hair restoration surgeons Dr Gary Hitzig and Dr Jerry Cooley created a technique that multiplies the number of hair follicles in an area that had been dormant using an FDA-cleared wound healing powder, but they stipulate it is not fool-proof yet.

“It appears to stimulate copying or ‘cloning’ of surrounding tissue to fill in a defect. However, this does not always occur, and I am conducting research to determine the best way to use the ACell to maximise success,” Dr Cooley said.

ACell’s MatriStem MicroMatrix powder was traditionally intended for diabetic ulcers, second degree burns and surgical wounds, but researchers say it has the potential to cause site-specific tissue regeneration that could be useful in hair restoration surgery.

“We have made amazing breakthroughs using MatriStem as a hair cloning tool,” Dr Hitzig said. “We”ve been able to multiply the number of hair follicles growing in the recipient area, and as an added benefit are seeing faster hair growth. This new hair cloning technique also makes hair transplantation surgery less invasive.”

Presently there are many obstacles that prove challenging with this technique, but if the procedure becomes available it will involve surgical implantation of externally engineered tissue cells into the scalp, meaning one would have to lose their hair before doing anything about it.

While the results of preliminary studies prove promising and the technique could be beneficial for those who have run out of traditional hair for transplantation, Dr Cooley says hair cloning is not the cure for baldness yet.

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Hypothyroidism is another disease on the rise in America, with more than 5 million people experiencing problems due to irregular levels in their thyroid glands.

Kent Holtorf founded National Academy of Hypothyroidism

Though the butterfly-shaped neck gland is only 12-15 millimeters in average length, the thyroid produces powerful metabolism-regulating hormones that, when lowered, can cause weight gain, depression, fatigue, memory loss, chronic pain, hair loss, brain fog and anxiety.

Particularly at risk of hypothyroidism are yo-yo dieters, people with high-stress lifestyles and women older than 30. Pregnancy and menopause also cause low thyroid levels.

Still, some doctors tell patients symptoms like weight gain and depression can be resolved with regular exercise and healthy eating habits — cures that are ineffective in the case of hypothyroidism.

So, the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists designated January as Thyroid Awareness Month, hoping to increase public knowledge about the disease. Oprah Winfrey has also discussed hypothyroidism on her television show and in her magazine after her diagnosis with the ailment.

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An estimated 50 million men and 25 million women suffer from hair loss in the United States. Unfortunately for men, high testosterone is one of the main reasons for hair loss, and therefore that is why women don’t have hair loss problems nearly as often as men. Furthermore, some women who have too much testosterone can shed hair in a patterned manner. However, testosterone itself does not cause hair loss. Hair loss is influenced by the transformation of testosterone into dihydrotestosterone (DHT).

The enzyme 5-alpha reductase ( 5 AR) converts testosterone to DHT. The enzyme 5 AR is produced in the prostate, various adrenal glands, and the scalp. DHT acts by binding to special receptor sites on the cells of the hair follicles to cause the specific changes associated with balding. Over time, the action of DHT causes the hair follicle to shed faster by shortening the anagen phase. DHT successively diminishes or miniaturizes follicle size, producing ever weaker hairs. With a steadily shorter anagen growing cycle, more hair is shed with the hair getting thinner and thinner until they become too fine to survive daily wear and tear. Add to this a hereditary predisposition to hair loss, and chances are that over time, the hair will thin and lead to baldness. Genetics plays a major role in the expression of the 5-alpha reductase enzyme, which converts testosterone to the hair-altering compound dihydrotestosterone, leading to a family trait that has a tendency towards balding.

One should keep in mind that the presence of the necessary genes and hormones are not, in on themselves sufficient to cause baldness. The reaction also requires time of exposure of susceptible hair follicles to the hormone for hair loss to begin. The time required for this to start varies from one individual to another and is related to a person’s genetic expression and sometimes to the levels of testosterone in his bloodstream. When a man experiences male pattern baldness, it appears that the hair follicles on his head have an extreme response and sensitivity to DHT. The follicles get broken to the point that they are no longer capable of producing hair.

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Stem cells are cells found in most, if not all, multi-cellular organisms. They are characterized by the ability to renew themselves through mitotic cell division and differentiating into a diverse range of specialized cell types. Research in the stem cell field grew out of findings by Canadian scientists Ernest A. McCulloch and James E. Till in the 1960s. The two broad types of mammalian stem cells are: embryonic stem cells that are isolated from the inner cell mass of blastocysts, and adult stem cells that are found in adult tissues. In a developing embryo, stem cells can differentiate into all of the specialized embryonic tissues. In adult organisms, stem cells and progenitor cells act as a repair system for the body, replenishing specialized cells, but also maintain the normal turnover of regenerative organs, such as blood, skin, or intestinal tissues.

Stem cells can now be grown and transformed into specialized cells with characteristics consistent with cells of various tissues such as muscles or nerves through cell culture. Highly plastic adult stem cells from a variety of sources, including umbilical cord blood and bone marrow, are routinely used in medical therapies. Embryonic cell lines and autologous embryonic stem cells generated through therapeutic cloning have also been proposed as promising candidates for future therapies.

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