Genetic variants associated with sweat gland phenotypes in 6,210 Han Chinese individuals

Sweat glands are widely distributed across human skin, playing an essential role in thermoregulation and body temperature maintenance, while sweat gland dysfunction is associated with various skin disorders, such as hyperhidrosis and anhidrosis (Asahina et al., 2015). Sweat gland density (SGD) varies significantly between and within ethnic groups (Lee et al., 2010). Despite the estimated heritability of SGD up to 0.66 (Scobbie and Sofaer, 1987), the underlying genetic factors and mechanisms responsible for this variation remain largely unexplored.