Once upon a time, a pregnant woman wished for strawberries, when she did not receive
them, her daughter born a few months later, a strawberry shaped mark on her forehead.
Or so the story goes in much of ancient history.
Hey Guys, Julia here for DNews
Birthmarks can often be a source of embarrassment for some.
A mistake of DNA can lead to an deposit of melanin or a tangle of veins.
But surprisingly, not a lot is known about them.
Scientists split birthmarks into two main categories, vascular and pigmented.
Caused by increase in melanin in one spot, pigmented birthmarks are mostly harmless.
Moles, Café au lait spot, and mongolian spots are the big three kinds.
Pigmented Nevi, or more commonly known as moles, are dark skin cells that grow in clusters.
Cafe au lait, are a little more spread out and a lighter brown or tan.
Mongolian spots, are bluish purplish spots and appear when melanocytes get trapped in
a deeper layer of skin.
And are typically found in people of East Asian descent.
They go away as kids get older and are almost always gone by puberty.
More is known about vascular birthmarks however,
The most common are stork bites, pink or tan patches that appear on babies’ neck.
It’s estimated that as many as half of all newborns get one.
Similar to spider veins, the stretching of some capillaries causes the patches to appear,
and they too usually go away after 18 months or so.
Another type of common birthmark are little strawberry like marks called infantile hemangiomas.
These are basically benign tumors in the cells that line blood vessels.
One study published in Journal of Clinical Investigation found that these marks originate
in one type of cell which express a protein, CD133.
From these cells blood vessels form, but then they disappear leaving behind fat cells which
make the marks stick out.
Another study published in Pediatric Dermatology found a connection between oxygen depletion
in the placenta and the development of these type of birthmarks.
Yet some research from The Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Research Institute
suggests that low birth weight is the single greatest factor in developing an infantile
hemangioma.
Most of them disappear after a few months, but up to 10% of them can cause some problems,
like getting so big it impacts vision or breathing.
Some birthmarks indicate a serious underlying issue.
Port-wine birthmarks are pretty common, about one million people in the United State have
the reddish elevated spots.
Like stork bits and hemangiomas, they form when capillaries don’t grow correctly, yet
these can grow and thicken over time.
They can sometimes be a hallmark of Sturge-Weber syndrome, in which patients have abnormal
blood vessels in the skin, brain and eyes, which cause the symptoms of the disorder.
One study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found a single genetic mutation
on the gene GNAQ is associated with the disorder.
From this run down, it’s clear more research is need, get on it science!
Alright guys, do you have a weird birthmark?
Let us know in the comments below.
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