Medics are stunned after a woman's hands changed colour following a transplant – to match the rest of her skin tone.
Amputee Shreya Siddanagowda, who lost both arms below the elbow after a bus accident, was given a man's hands during a 13 hour operation.
The hands were large and hairy, but incredibly they have started to blend with the rest of her body – even becoming smaller.
Shreya, from India, is one of just 200 people to have been given a successful hand transplant around the world.
Because of the long wait, most people are desperate to take the first hands they are offered – even if the donor is a different gender, The Straight Times reports.
But now doctors are baffled at the change in appearance.
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Shreya's mum Suma told AFP: "The donor was a tall man with big spindly fingers.
"Now nobody can make out that they are a man’s hands …she has even started wearing jewellery and nail varnish."
When a donor was identified in 2017, surgeons attached the hands by the bones before tendons, skin and blood vessels were stitched together.
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Doctor Subramania Iyer, who helped carry out the procedure in Kerala, said the hands quickly began to adapt and the skin colour changed, but they don't know why.
When the procedure was carried out, the donor's skin was a lot darker than Shreya's.
He speculated the reason could be a hormone called MSH which is controlled by the brain.
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"We are wondering MSH levels can really influence the skin colour," he said.
It is thought that the lack of testosterone is the reason for the hands becoming less hairy, and Dr Shehla Agarwal, a top dermatologist in New Delhi, said the skin might have lightened because the donor may have spent more time in the sun than Shreya.
- Science
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