Hypertrichosis: The Werewolf Syndrome

Hypertrichosis: The Werewolf Syndrome The disease Hypertrichosis, also known as “The Werewolf Syndrome,” causes unwanted/abnormal hair growth either in one spot or all over an affected person’s body. There are two main types: Naevoid, and Congenital. Naevoid Hypertrichosis, is where the hair grows in one spot on the body, sometimes the limbs but usually proportional in the facial area. Congenital is where hair covers a majority of the body, sometimes right after birth! In severe cases, the hair becomes colored and remains. Both types are caused by, a spontaneous mutation on the X-Chromosome and a flaw in the pregnancy where the lanugo, instead of it falling off after the 8th month, it continues to grow. Being that the mutation is in the X-Chromosome, means that the disease has a chance to be given to offspring of affected people. This disease is pretty rare having only a couple 100 known cases, which is also the cause for the fact that Hypertrichosis has not too had many studies done on it resulting in doctors not being all that sure about this disease. They recently found out about the mutation on the X-Chromosome and that it is an extra chunk of genes on the gene known as SOX3. This was studied and discovered by the professor of medical genetics at Peking Union Medical College, Xue Zhang, and Study researcher Pragna Patel. The first recorded case of Hypertrichosis was Petrus Gonsalvus of the Canary Islands. Documented by Altrovandus in the late 15th century and published in his text Montrorum Historia cum Paralipomenis historiae omnium animalium, published in 1642. He noted two daughters, a son, and a grandchild in Gonzales' family that all had Hypertrichosis. Altrovandus (after the Ambras Castle near Innsbruck), called them the Ambras family, where portraits of the family were found. During the next 300 years, about 50 cases were recorded. The scientist Rudolf Virchow described a form of Hypertrichosis accompanied by gingival hyperplasia in