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Fetuses Provide Stem-Like Cells to Mothers
Flatline5150 writes "Excerpt from this
article on Boston.com: 'Many a pregnant woman has moments when her fetus seems like a little parasite, all take, take, take. But new research suggests that a fetus may also be giving back a lifelong gift: cells that appear to act like stem cells, migrating to diseased organs in the mother and trying to fix them.'"
Yeah well except most ebryonic stem cells come from unused inventro-fertilization embryos. Ones that would get "thrown away" anyway. They have no chance at actual survival. Because IVF is risky and low yield, they have to try many (I think groups of 4) eggs to reliably get 1, but in some cases, get more. In those cases, they pick one and toss the others. Or in some cases, use them for stem cells.
The reason embryonic stem cells are the niftiest, is because they can be transformed into any other cells. Other stem cells, like those from teeth, blood, etc are usually "stuck" to only turn into a certian subset of cells.
Check out this article on Scientific American
Sure, the stem cells are so appalled that they all jump out of the woman's body.
The article says "...but seem to remain forever in the blood of such women, including those who miscarry or abort."
Well, that was the old view of it, but if fetuses contribute stem cells to the mother then they are no longer simple parasites, at least according to my dictionary:
# Biology. An organism that grows, feeds, and is sheltered on or in a different organism while contributing nothing to the survival of its host.
According to my wife (a 4th year med-student), pregnancy and birth control that
simulates pregnancy (like the pill) reduce a women's risk of ovarian cancer.
*sigh* back to work...
If a mother's blood is Rh- (ie her blood is A-, B-, AB-, or O-), and she has an Rh+ baby and is exposed to that baby's blood, she will start to produce antibodies to that Rh+ factor. If the woman gets pregnant with another Rh+ baby, her body can launch an immune response to that baby, causing all sorts of problems. Nowadays doctors test for and anticipate the problem, and simply give the mom a shot of anti-D immunoglobin, which prevents her body from producing the harmful antibodies, and everyone comes out just fine. (More details) -- or just Google for "rhesus antibody pregnancy"
There was an article published a few years ago on this....
0 1. html
http://nasw.org/users/ccmorton/globesamplemay20
I think there was another article on this earlier this year or last year but I can't remember where.
"...today consumers have been conditioned to think of beer when they see a bullfrog..."