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Children Help Their Mothers for Decades
Itninja writes "NPR reported this morning on some interesting findings regarding mothers and their children. From the article: 'Some scientists have proposed that when a woman has a baby, she gets not just a son or a daughter, but a gift of cells that stays behind and protects her for the rest of her life. That's because a baby's cells linger in its mom's body for decades and -- like stem cells -- may help to repair damage when she gets sick. It's such an enticing idea that even the scientists who came up with the idea worry that it may be too beautiful to be true.'"
It's such an enticing idea that even the scientists who came up with the idea worry that it may be too beautiful to be true.
A qualified poet once testified under oath that beauty was truth, truth beauty, and hoped thereby to prove that the guilty party in the case was Life itself for failing to be either beautiful or true. The judges concurred, and in a moving speech held that Life itself was in contempt of court, and duly confiscated it from all those there present before going off to enjoy a pleasant evening's ultragolf.
Yes, there is the "Good Hypothesis": that the cells stay in the mom and try to protect her for the rest of her life.
And yes, there is the "Bad Hypothesis": that the cells gather at inflammation sites and contribute to mom's autoimmune diseases.
But there is also a third hypothesis:
That both of the first two hypothesis were concocted by by a wily editor of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in order to increase the level of universal uncertainty and paranoia and so boost sales of the Guide?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
"Service Pack".
So My mom has a fetus cache? Or did I leave a cookie?
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
I wonder if this has anything to do with women living on average, seven years longer than men?
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The left over cells are also thought to play a role in auto-immune diseases that can occur after pregnancy, (iirc).
My personal collection of cells can actually mow my Mom's entire lawn.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
The miracles of the vagina never cease to amaze me....9 months trying to get out and the rest of your life trying to get back in.
Some scientists have proposed that when a woman has a baby, she gets not just a son or a daughter, but a gift of cells that stays behind and protects her for the rest of her life.
That's great. I guess it doesn't help with the depression though.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Babies are the new brocolli! Eat more babies!
Experience negative health benefits from children.
I know mine drive me crazy.
From a evolution and survival of the species standpoint, it makes sense. Since the offspring is so dependant on the mother for food for many years after birth, the species needs to ensure that the mother lives to provide.
are 30 years old and still living in the basement.
sigs, as if you care.
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I read something related to this in a neurobiology article back in October. See this link.
For the lazy, some scientists in Singapore and Asia activated a flourescent green protein in rat males and bred them with normal rat females. After giving birth, the mother rats had neuronal cells with the protein expressed in their brains, making it clear that those cells formerly belonged to their fetuses. And check out this quote:
"Moreover, after the scientists chemically injured the mouse brains, nearly six times as many fetal cells made their way to damaged areas than elsewhere, suggesting the cells could be responding to molecular distress signals released by the brain."
Seems like it makes for a pretty damn good argument for this theory to me.
Hero of Allacrost, a FOSS RPG for *NIX/*BSD/OS X/Win
... the rate of pregnancy in woman in their 40-70's has skyrocketed!
Help Brendan pay off his student loans
I've got some cells that are lingering inside your mom too.
nothing
(Indeed, the fetus often gets cells from the mother, too. Many women have cells of their own, and from their mothers, and from their children...)
PHEM - party like it's 1997-2003!
I got the full story on NPR-- and the scientist they interviewed brought that up. They *were* under the impression that the placenta formed an impenetrable barrier, and they *did* think that the immune system would attack any remaining fetal cells, but the evidence suggests otherwise.
So it's okay if I skip a card and chocolates on her birthday now and then, right?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
The whole thing is written in that horrible style that you get in magazines called things like "You and Your Baby". I can almost smell the perfumed baby products wafting up from the text.
I think I'd rather read Creationist writing.
"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," -- Scott McClellan, Whitehouse spokesman.
If it wasn't so much fun, I'd stop trying to kill her this way. Y'know, ever since she had that tubal, I've been wondering about the wisdom of trying to do her in by impregnation. Oh, well . . . too late to stop now!
Just like a Ga'ould symbiot! Second only in healing powers to Richard Dean Anderson himself.
i just saw
a guy is fingered for a rape/ murder, so they check his dna against the crime scene dna and find out that he doesn't match 100%, but 50%, implying his brother did the crime
so csi seeks out all of the guy's brothers, including a crazy homeless schizophrenic one, but none of them match the dna 100% either
until the lead csi guy figures out what is really going on: the guy is a chimera
a chimera is a very very rare person where two eggs/ embryos fuse very early in embryonic development, such that only one person results, but one person where different organ systems in the body are from different genetic makeups, in essence, two brothers becoming one man
for example, the person's brain and bone marrow might be of person a, but the skin and eggs/ testicles might be of person b
so it is possible, for example, to have a child that is genetically your nephew/ niece, if only your brother's testicles are left of him and you are a chimera
the point is, the body is very well able to be made of different genetic lineages, without all of the usual immunological tissue rejection issues and such
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Since that's never been observed (and I'm sure someone has looked at the stats, it's such an easy study), this can't be true.
I suspect these so-called "scientists"
You go on and ASSUME something, and then you put "scientists" in quotes.
Because, clearly, the master of assumptions is more of a scientist than these lab-coat wearing bozos!
You can't take the sky from me...
"Dance with me, mom! Dance the dance of life!" ...fumble, trip, crash...
...sigh... the things I did for you, giving you birth through excruciating labour for hours... ...sigh... the things I did for you, leaving my fetal cell behind to help you heal...
So is this mean, I can finally talk back to my mom with same tone?
mom:
son:
ps: Mom, I love you. I'm just kidding.
"Don't let fools fool you. They are the clever ones."
Hey, you know what, you're right. The professional researchers who did this work must have overlooked it. All that work wasted!
Seriously.. why is it that with every science story that comes on here, there's some tool who says "Hey, what about [ridiculously simple and/or well-known concept]?"
How do you think these people get to be researchers? Lotto?
Indeed, and such a study was done. The conclusion was a statistically significant increase in the lifespan of mothers vs. childless women, although environmental factors (status level and level of education) were more significant.
Interestingly, older mothers had a slower rate of aging than young mothers.
I haven't RTF, but I heard the NPR report on the way in this morning. They actually addressed abortions, still borns, etc. None of that seems to matter in this finding, merely conception (and probably enough development for the zygote to become a fetus so that there is blood, but I don't think that was said explicitly.)
My UID is the product of 2 primes.
When I read the title "Children Help Their Mothers for Decades" my first thought was "yea, she knows how to take you on a helluva guilt trip."
God help you if you forget Mother's Day.
and FYI to the Slashdot crowd: Valentine's Day is coming up. Send your mother some flowers. Think of it as building up karma... because you're going to need something to burn next time she thinks you ignored her.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Thanks. Now when my mom asks me what I've done for her, I can deflect the guilt trip.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
This was answered in the piece; the researchers found that the baby's cells were indeed making it through the placenta wall, and were not being attacked by the mother's immune system. The researchers found this counter-intuitive as well.
"You be the captain, and I'll be no one." -- Kasey Chambers
Now when my mom and I get into an argument and she uses the line "Hey! I brought you into this world!" I can counter with:
I gave you super healing!
"There are more important things than stopping terrorism. Upholding the Constitution is one of them." - Ars Forumer.
Ok...so mothers get to live longer because of the left over cells. What about the years shaved off by dealing with youngins?
Child birth: +10 years
Raising a child: -7 years
Genetic design working out in your benefit: Priceless.
The only change I can believe in is what I find in my couch cushions.
What's so beautiful about the idea that females send unknowing new people into this cruel world, just so the mothers can leech off the stemcells? They keep the byproduct of the stemcell production around, first to help with chores, then to pose for exploitative pictures, and later to drive them to the senior club.
--
make install -not war
The therapist always told me I wasn't responsible for my mothers death, but now I have scientific evidence.
My cells should have been there for her.
If only Google Maps could find me the nearest bridge.
Good Bye Cruel World!
Big ones, small ones, some as big as yer 'ead!
Give 'em a twist, a flick o' the wrist...
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Dear Mr. Kernablaha,
You are absolutely right. What were we thinking? The whole idea is rediculous. Thank you, Mr. Kenalbaha, for providing the insight that only a person with a "minimal knowledge of biology" could provide. Us here with postdoctoral degrees have been clearly wasting our efforts on nonsense. We'll send back our grants and ask that all our peer reviewed articles be retracted.
Sincerely,
Diana W. Bianchi, M.D.
Vice Chair for Research,
Floating Hospital for Children, Tufts University
This was published in 2004 in JAMA, and has been in discussion for years in the stem cell literature.
See:
http://www.uffl.org/pdfs/rauscher.pdf
The amazing thing here is not that fetal cells (and their corresponding DNA) migrate througout the mother's body. After all, both mother and fetus share a circulatory system. The amazing thing is that these cells "linger for decades". After the baby is born, there should no longer be a source of the offspring's genetic material in the mother. As the prenatally produced cells die, they should not replenish without a fetus in utero. If, as this sensationalist article suggests, cells with fetal DNA exist in the mother for years, then one of two circumstances has taken place. First, these cells do not die for decades. This is unlikely, but theoretically possible. More likely is the second hypothesis, which is that fetal stem cells have migrated into the mother's body, implanted, and begun to reproduce. Depending on the type of stem cell, only certain "derivative" cells should be produced. (This explains why mom doesn't grow new body parts.) This would explain the autoimmune theory since blood cells have a higher statistical likelihood of being circulated in the mom's body. Further research should be done as to the types of fetal cells in the mother, the origins and life-expectancies of these cells, and the point in fetal development in which parent and child begin to share cells. Either way, the interesting thing is the presence of these cells long after the child's birth - not the existance of fetal cells in the mother in the first place.
He who would be a man, must be a nonconformist. -- Emerson
"Some scientists have proposed that when a woman has a baby, she gets not just a son or a daughter, but a gift of cells that stays behind and protects her for the rest of her life"
I thought it refered to the kid as the gift of cells that protects the mother.
God spoke to me.