Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. - 9/9/2010

Question
Hello,

Firstly I would like to highly appreciate and express my regards to all the help and support you bestow through this forum to answer to different queries pertaining to science.

My question is, I have heard that farmers who cultivate pineapples tend to loose thier finger prints over the years due to exposure to Bromelain found in pineapple, is that true that it can obliterate skin like so?

Rgds, Ryan

Answer
Dear Ryan,

Boy, I haven't heard that one before.  But then I did a quick search and found that the rumor is out there.

While bromelain is a proteolytic (protein-dissolving) enzyme, I do not think it could be used to permanently obliterate fingerprints.  Anyone who works with caustic or abrasive materials may have fairly distorted fingerprints over time, due to the skin flaking off and making the prints underneath harder to see.

But skin does repair itself, and because fingerprints are genetically encoded, you'd have to utterly destroy the precursor cells that give rise to the tissue that constantly replaces skin cells (including those that form the fingerprints).  I don't think that's possible without severely burning the fingers with acid or heat so that the tissues are so badly scarred that the prints don't grow back.

But I really doubt that pineapple farmers would permanently lose their fingerprints, even if their fingerprints were severely degraded with the constant exposure to bromelain.  A few weeks off the juice, and they'd have their prints back.

Just my educated guess.

Hope that helps!

Dana