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Fetuses Provide Stem-Like Cells to Mothers

Posted by timothy on from the hedged-language-until-proven dept.

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.'"

1 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Exciting by AKnightCowboy · · Score: 3, Informative
    In placental mammals, the fetus is parasitic on the mother.

    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.