Adermatoglyphia is a very rare genetic disease resulting in the absence of fingerprints on the fingers and feet. Even if it does not have serious health repercussions, it causes many problems in everyday life.
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Apu Sarker, 22, lives with his family in a village in the Râjshâhî district in northwest Bangladesh. But he encountered major administrative problems. The young man is unable to buy a SIM cardSIM card for your phone or to obtain a valid driving license or passport. On his identity card, where fingerprints normally appear, it says “no fingerprints”. Because Apu, like nine other members of his family, suffers from a very rare congenital disease called adermatoglyphia, which manifests itself by the absence of fingerprints.
Adermatoglyphia, a rare congenital disease
Normally, fingerprints are drawn between the 16e and the 25e week of pregnancy, when the skin is malleable, and depend on both genetic factors and the intrauterine environment. But in people with adermatoglyphia, the SMARCAD1 gene is altered, such that it prevents coding for the corresponding protein and the fetusfetus does not develop any drawing on his fingers. This results in the absence of epidermal ridges on the palms and soles of the feet. Adermatoglyphia is often associated with a restriction in the number of openings of sweat glandssweat glandswhich leads to a droughtdrought of the skin on the palms and soles of the feet. This condition is extremely rare. Only four cases were described in 2011, according to a study by Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology. But, as the SMARCAD1 gene is dominant, only one chromosomechromosome carrier is enough to trigger the disease, which explains why several members of the same family are generally affected.
Until fingerprints were commonly used, the disease went unnoticed. She was discovered in 2007, when a Swiss woman was turned away at the US border. Customs officers noticed that she did not have a fingerprint, and scientists then carried out analyzes DNADNA of the whole family. THE dermatologistdermatologistauthor of this discovery, nicknamed this condition “immigration disease”.
The “immigration disease”
Even if it does not cause any symptomsymptom serious secondary, adermatoglyphia has very annoying repercussions in everyday life. “ I successfully passed the driving test, paid for the license, but I couldn’t get the official paper because I couldn’t provide a fingerprint », Describes Apu Sarker to the BBC. As you have to register on a biometric register to buy a Sim card, all the men in the family use the code from their mother’s phone, who does not have the disease.
Did you know ?
There is another form of adermatoglyphia, called Naegeli-Franceschetti-Jadassohn syndrome, also due to a genetic mutation. It affects the KRT14 gene coding for keratin 14, which results in an absence of dermatoglyphs (fingerprints), reticular skin hyperpigmentation, dry skin with heat intolerance, nail dystrophy, abnormalities of the dental enamel, as well as hyperkeratosis of the palms and soles. According to the Orphanet website, this syndrome affects approximately one case per three million people. There is no treatment.
Clear your fingerprints
It is possible to erase your fingerprints yourself by burning your fingers. There are regular cases of illegal immigrants mutilated in order to escape identity checks. Others try to put glue or plasticplastic melted on their fingers to hide their fingerprints. According to Nathanaël Caillaux, legal advisor at the local office of France Terre d’Asile and cited by the Inrockuptibles, 80% of asylum seekers in the Calais region make their fingerprints illegible. A “disease” much more common than true adermatoglyphia.
