So, I have to admit that I watch Heroes. It started when I was living in Thailand -- some of my students were watching it online and they convinced me to give it a try. I've been hooked ever since. Guilty addiction (along with a long list of other shows I watch while studying).
Anyways, so a few weeks ago Mohinder (a biologist/geneticist, see above pic) injected himself with a solution containing stress hormones (from what I could gather) that came from Mia during one of her episodes. At first everything was fine and dandy -- but then he had super human strength.
Major Side Effect: Peeling Nasty Skin.
This past week in pathobiology we've been studying immunopathology. During class our professor showed us this picture, and all I could think of was the peeling nasty skin from heroes:
What is it? Pemphigus Vulgaris, "an autoimmune blistering disorder resulting from the loss of integrity of normal intercellular attachments within the epidermis and mucosal epithelium... Primary lesions are superficial vesicles and bullae that rupture easily, leaving shallow erosions covered with dried serum and crust." (Robbins and Contran, Pathological Basis of Disease).Issues around it being the same thing as on Heroes:
1. It generally affects pressure points on skin, scalp, face, axilla, groin, trunk
2. It's a type II hypersensitivity reaction, involving autoantibodies binding to cell surface/ tissue antigens. While this could be possible, it would mean that the injection contained the antibodies to Mohinder's desmosomes -- which is only possible if Mia had has previous immune exposure.
I'm sure there are others, but I'm stopping there.
Thoughts from the gallery??
And yes, I really did just post this... I'm a nerd.
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