Genetics research published in 2016 could help explain the legend of giants in Irish folklore.
The study, led by Barts and the London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen Mary University of London, in collaboration with the universities of Exeter, Belfast and Dublin and University College London as well as 17 other Institutions, studied patients with the hormonal disorder acromegaly and tested DNA samples from the general public to identify carriers of a gene predisposing to childhood-onset acromegaly often leading to gigantism.
They undertook an ambitious and widely collaborative study, enlisting the invaluable help of patients and the general public to set the study up in Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland.
They identified a particular mutation in Irish patients and now searched for carriers of this gene in Ireland.
The frequency of the AIP mutation (R304*) was found to be surprisingly high in Mid-Ulster, Northern Ireland.
The data suggest that all Irish patients with this particular mutations (18 families and 81 carriers) are descendants from the same ancestor, who lived in the area 2,500 years ago.
Out of the identified 81 carriers 31 had developed acromegaly and over half of these had gigantism (18 patients, 58%).
Hellbound and Down 