Adermatoglyphia

Adermatoglyphia is a rare medical condition which causes a person to have no fingerprints. It is also known as "immigration delay disease". There are only four known extended families worldwide which are affected by this condition.

Recently the description of a case from Switzerland with lacking fingerprints as an isolated finding was published. The Phenotype was mapped to Chromosome 4q22. In the splice-site of an 3' exon of the Gene for SMARCAD1-Helicase a pointmutation was detected. It results in a shortened form of the skin-specific Protein. The heterozygous mode of mutation suggests an autosomal dominant mode of inheritance.

There are other conditions that cause a lack of fingerprints, but unlike them, adermatoglyphia has no other side effects. Mutations in Helicases are in involved in other rare genetic diseases, for instance Werner syndrome.