Insights into cerumen and application in diagnostics: past, present and future prospective.

ABSTRACT: Cerumen or earwax is an emerging bio-fluid in clinical diagnosis that has been very little exploited during the past decades in spite of its high diagnostic potential. It is highly abundant in diagnostic biomarkers such as genetic material, lipids, proteins, chemical elements, internal and external metabolites (e.g. hormones, volatile organic compounds, amino acids, xenobiotics etc.) reaching earwax from the blood circulation. Thus, it is able to reflect not only physiology, pathophysiology of the human body but can also detect recent and long term exposure to environmental pollutants, without the need of invasive blood tests and in the same time overcoming many disadvantages faced by using other diagnostic biological fluids. This review discusses the biology, functions, chemistry of earwa

SUBMITTER: Shokry E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5696747 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature