Hektoen International

A Journal of Medical Humanities

Tag: mitochondrial DNA

  • Mitochondrial DNA: a maternal gift

    Marshall LichtmanRochester, New York, United States DNA is arrayed on twenty-three pairs of chromosomes in human cell nuclei. It is coiled tightly around proteins called histones that together with DNA form a chromosome. The largest chromosome carries several thousand genes and the smallest several hundred. DNA is so tightly wound that uncoiled from a single…

  • Did Casimir Pulaski have 21-hydroxylase deficiency?

    Gregory RuteckiLyndhurst, Ohio, United States “. . . I could not submit to stoop before the sovereigns of Europe, so I came to hazard all the freedom of America, and desirous of passing the rest of my life in a country truly free and before settling as a citizen, to fight for liberty.”1 -Casimir Pulaski…

  • Charles Darwin’s illness and the ‘wondrous water cure’

    John HaymanMelbourne, Australia Charles Darwin (1809-1882) suffered from a relapsing, incapacitating illness for most of his adult life with a bewildering array of symptoms.1 The first symptoms appeared when he was a medical student in Edinburgh (1825-1827), where he was unable to witness surgical procedures and was noted to have a “weak stomach.”2 Later, when…