Dr. W.A. Jones was a physician to a family from Russia. In 1931, the difference in the appearance of the family's three children caught his attention. The children's cheeks and jaws were quite plump, their eyes facing upwards, and their sclera could be seen from under their irises. A doctor who takes children's head radiographs Jones found that there were multiple cysts on his jawbones. The cysts differed from the lesions he had seen before in that they were very numerous and bilateral (bilateral, both on the right and on the left).
Dr. Jones likened this interesting image to the "cherub" motif, which was first used in Renaissance paintings and later in sculptures, and the disease was so named. "Cherub" is an angelic baby motif with fat cheeks, wings, eyes believed to be facing heaven.
Because the disease is genetic, it was passed to the literature in 1933 as" familial multilocular cystic disease of the jaws". It is named by Jones. Dr. Although Jones shared the findings of the disease in this publication, he followed the first children's patients with these findings over the years. By the time children reached the age of 15-16, they had undergone aesthetic operations and were able to have a normal face size and shape.
It is a benign fibroosseous disease that occurs in childhood and is quite rare. Jaw lesions can resemble ameloblastoma, another jaw tumor, or giant cell tumors in their appearance. All these lesions give an image similar to soap foam on radiography. Differential diagnosis is made by the fact that Cherubism is bilateral and ameloblastoma and giant cell granulomas can be seen at a relatively later age. In cherubism, lesions on the bone are usually symmetrical and painless. Preliminary diagnosis with external appearance, final diagnosis with radiography can be made. For treatment, it is appropriate to wait for puberty.
It was also thought that the disease was genetic before it was found to be due to a mutation in the sh3bp2 gene that binds SH3 on chromosome 4p16.3. From the beginning, Cherubism was thought to be genetic, as familial transitivity occurs in more than one child of a family. Recent studies have confirmed that it is an autosomal dominant genetic disease caused by a mutation in the sh3bp2 gene.
The disease is usually painless, hard swelling that begins in the mandible (lower jaw bone), and eventually spreads to the maxilla (upper jaw bone), and from there to the orbital bone. When the Orbital bone is affected, there is a significant growth in the lower and middle percentage. But almost every case is limited to facial bones being affected. As the case becomes aggressive, the patient may develop subjectively diplopia (double vision) and strabismus (strabismus). The eyes are dislocated outwards (proptosis).
If we talk about the motif that gives the disease its name, the concepts of "cherub" and "putti (putto)" are separated from each other in Catholic theology today. "Cherub "is depicted in the form of a man, an ox or a lion with four faces, who was in the highest seniority during the periods when there was a hierarchy among Angels in the Middle Ages and had eight wings, while the angel-faced baby figure is called" putti". Putti is a figure that has been frequently used in Renaissance and Baroque works.