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Does human sweat contain DNA?

Best Answers

The Wikipedia page you linked says that sweat is composed of a liquid similar to blood plasma. As all DNA in humans is stored in the nucleus of a cell, it seems unlikely that the sweat itself would contain any DNA. read more

DNA can be extracted from cells. Human perspiration in composition is just water, minerals like sodium, chloride, potassium, magnesium, urea etc. So, technically it does not contain human cells, hence no DNA. However, we constantly shed skin cells, even while stationary. read more

Sweat does not normally contain human DNA, it does not pick up many skin cells under normal conditions, excessive sweat can pick up some however. However sweat is colonized by bacteria fairly quickly once it reaches the surface of the skin so unless you are extracting it directly from the gland it will contain bacteria with their own DNA. read more

Best Answer: Human tears and sweat are not cellular fluids with DNA as an element. It may be possible that some cellular tissue that contains DNA can be transferred by tears or sweat. read more