Wow - Baby comes with repair kit for Mom!

[Indenturedebtor]

http://www.newscientist.com/channel/sex/mg18725134.300-baby-comes-with-brain-repair-kit-for-mum.html

This is a long way off, but there are good reasons for thinking that fetal stem cells could one day act as a bespoke brain repair kit. It is already well known that during pregnancy a small number of fetal stem cells stray across the placenta and into the mother's bloodstream, a phenomenon called microchimerism. They can survive for decades in tissues such as skin, liver and spleen, where they have been shown to repair damage (New Scientist, 15 November 2003, p 34).

*****

A team led by Gavin Dawe of the National University of Singapore and Xiao Zhi-Cheng of Singapore's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology showed that once the stowaways enter mouse brains, they mature into different cell types.

These include cells resembling neurons, which transmit electrical impulses; astrocytes, which support neurons; and oligodendrocytes, which ensheath and protect nerve cells. "They can become almost all major cell types found in the brain," Dawe says.

*****

----------------------

Very cool! I would send it to my wife but it would probably freak her out hahaha. No kids yet, and this likely wouldn't help. She finds the whole parasitic aspect of motherhood disturbing... to her this would read "Baby takes over mothers brain from the womb."

[Ilsa]

1. I guess it is all in how you look at it.

Maybe she should look at the reparative cells as a gift from the baby for the hard nine months and childbirth and nursing.

[Indenturedebtor]

3. She has issues with the whole childbirth thing

Her mother let her watch her little brother birthed when she was still a very young child. I agree with you but it's just a very sensitive issue.

[Ilsa]

6. Oh no. I'm a firm believer that little kids are not always

ready for that sort of thing. The hospitals usually require sibling classes for them to attend the actual birth.

If she is still young (twenties?), she may "grow out of it". If it is keeping her from having what she wants in life, then I would recommend counselling. She may have more of a phobia.

But yes, medical stuff isn't always perfect or perfectly safe. Women around the world still die in childbirth. 30+% of knownpregnancies end in miscarriage.

Perhaps taking health or first aid classes would help de-sensitize her.

[lildreamer316]

9. Please tell her sometime...

I was really scared shitless about mine. I mean paralyzing fear, almost.
It was....really not that bad. I swear I've had cuts/broken things that were worse.
Of course, I did take all the meds...

[xchrom]

2. a scientific window into the intuitave connection women

seem to have for their children?

[Indenturedebtor]

4. I dunno

My father always seemed to understand me better. I don't think that there's any cosmic mojo going on here beyond the philosophical, but it's very very cool :D

[xchrom]

5. i agree it's very cool.nt

[Ilsa]

7. I think alot of the connectedness comes from the dna relationship itself, and

parents spending so much time with their little ones. I don't think we should rule out your proposition, though!

[kestrel91316]

8. Microchimerism. That's just creepy.

Of course I got creeped out in school by the whole freemartinism thing in livestock, too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemartin

Does the microchimerism in people mean that if a first child makes a mother go crazy by being a screamer or whatever, that the next pregnancy will make her ok again? And so on and so on?? Could this explain why some people think having endless kids is a great deal? Like they are addicted to the "repair" process, lol????