Cyclopes and Giants: From Homer's Odyssey to contemporary genetic diagnosis
| Autor: | Anastasia Theodoropoulou, Anastasia K. Armeni, Georgios K. Markantes, Constantine A. Stratakis, Vasiliki Vasileiou, Neoklis A. Georgopoulos |
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| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
0301 basic medicine
Endocrinology Diabetes and Metabolism 030209 endocrinology & metabolism Context (language use) Ancient Greek Gigantism Diagnosis Differential 03 medical and health sciences Race (biology) 0302 clinical medicine Predictive Value of Tests Acromegaly Medicine Humans Genetic Predisposition to Disease Genetic Testing History Ancient business.industry Pituitary tumors General Medicine Mythology medicine.disease language.human_language Genealogy Body Height 030104 developmental biology Phenotype language business Medical literature |
| Zdroj: | Hormones (Athens, Greece). 15(3) |
| ISSN: | 2520-8721 |
| Popis: | Giants are humanlike creatures of prodigious size and strength present in the myths and legends of many cultures. Cyclopes were a race of giants depicted in ancient Greek mythology and literature. Apart from their extraordinary stature, they were also characterised by the presence of one single eye, located in the centre of their forehead. One of them, Polyphemus, plays a central role in one of the most exiting episodes of Homer’s Odyssey. Besides, descriptions of cases of extremely tall individuals appear in the medical literature as early as in the 16 th century A.D. Post mortem evidence of pituitary tumors were identified in most of these cases, pointing towards acromegaly / gigantism as the most likely cause. More recent case reports on real life giants enriched with the use of radiographic imaging have yielded similar results and even familial cases have been identified. Today, pituitary adenomas over secreting growth hormone (GH) are recognised as the most common cause of acromegaly and advances have been made in understanding their aetiology and pathogenesis. Medical interpretation of the case of Cyclopes covers the differential diagnosis of familial tall stature concurrent with vision impairment in the form of bitemporal hemianopia. Combining textual evidence from Homer’s Odyssey with current scientific data has led us to the conclusion that gigantism in the context of Familial Isolated Pituitary Adenoma (FIPA) or X-linked acro-gigantism (X-LAG) due to mutations either in AIP or GPR101 is the possible culprit: a change in DNA sequence functioning as a link between myth and reality, proving not only that Cyclopes could have really existed, but also that giants are still living among us. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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