All in the name of science ....

While I am waiting for my heart, the UW Hospital has been running me through some additional procedures to gather as much information on me as possible. X-rays, Ultra-Sounds, pulling eyebrows, ..... What! Okay, here is the scoop. The Fred Hutchinson Center is running a test on heart and lung transplant patients to see if they are prone to a certain skin diseases after transplant. It is a follow up study as some of the medications may cause the person the be more prone to sun burn and skin diseases. The Center has asked for some blood samples pre and during my transplant. I am giving so much blood already, an extra vial here and there is not missed. But then they asked for four eyebrows from the left side and four from the right side. Apparently the Center will look at the cells at the base of the hairs for their study. It was weird to put on latex gloves and pluck the eyebrows to then be placed in special vials. Apparently they are wanting the samples to be free of any contamination from my hands. What I can not understand is the significance of the left and right side. Some people have plenty of eyebrows in the center of their head that need to come out anyway (unless they are going for the cyclops look). How different are the cells at the base of these hairs? While I may not understand this, I should take comfort in the fact that this is all being done "in the name of science."