Q. What are the lines on the palms of our hands? How arethey formed?





A hand is prehensile multifingered organ located at the end of the forearm. The glabrous skin on the front of thehand i.e., palm, has lines known as palmar flexion creases which help the hand's skin to stretch and squeeze. Different palm lines are actually creases on the palms.These lines or creases develop in the 12th week of the gestation in womb. As the baby stays in a folded positionand skin is very tender at that stage, wrinkles appear on the palms which later becomes palm lines. Palm lines providean avenue for the hand's skin to fold without bunching up and making it difficult to grab onto items. People usually have three transverse creases in their palm but one out of thirty people may have single palmar creases. Having a single palmar crease is often normal but itnmay also be associated with problems during developmentband certain disorders such as down syndrome, Aarskog syndrome, cohen syndrome, etc.