Carrying another being in your womb is a unique experience. The being that is gestating receives from Mother the food, the oxygen and the protection it needs to survive and get to form, in addition to many other stimuli. However, perhaps you have ever wondered if this being, which is different from its mother, modifies in some way the woman who carries it inside her. If so, you will be interested to know what is the Microchimerism . Scientists have studied how the baby's cells modify their mother's DNA. Discover it!
In Greek mythology a chimera was a fantastic being, a hybrid monster, which presented in its anatomy recognizable parts of various animals. The chimera described in the myths had three heads, the first lion, the second goat and the third, at the height of the tail was dragon or snake. This image gave name to the chimerism that is when "two zygotes, after fertilization, combine to form a single one that develops normally", in DNA analysis there are two different types of DNA, as if there were two people in one. The microchimerism it would be a variant of chimerism.
Microchimerism
The microchimerism it is, according to the definition, "the presence of a small number of cells originating from one individual in another". In some of the cases studied, both in humans and animals, the individual has their own genes and others that have a DNA profile that is similar to the first in 50% and is usually produced by two fertilized eggs that before three weeks they have come together, creating a single being with double genetic material. However, most of the cases of microquimerism studied are from fetomaternal microchimerism . In it, the cells of the fetus come through the placenta and create a lineage of cells with different DNA in the tissues of the mother.
The phenomenon of microchimerism It has been known for several decades and was discovered when male DNA was detected in a woman's blood. However, because the technology of the time was very incipient, it could not be studied in depth. At present it can be done.
At Arizona State University they have made A study about how the microchimerism It may have affected evolution. The relationship between the mother and the fetus of the placental mammals has developed over millions of years to reach a balance between the changes that the fetus produces in the mother to solve their needs and the countermeasures of this to not run out of resources own. When the fetal cells, through the placenta, reach the maternal blood, some of them lodge in the tissues and use the chemical signals of the nearby cells to become the same as the tissue that surrounds them. At the end of pregnancy, these fetal cells are eliminated, but those that have been integrated into the maternal tissues are not detected and remain there.
Is microquimerism beneficial or harmful to the mother?
There are several studies that attempt to elucidate this question. In some cases it seems that the microchimerism it can be positive, in others negative and in some scientists believe that it is a process that really does not affect the health of the mother at all. The phenomenon, which is widespread among mammals, according to scientists can result from having a better healing of certain wounds to suffer an increased risk of suffering from cancer.
Scientists think that if evolutionary reasoning is followed, the cells of the fetus must be lodged in the tissues of organs that are related to the resources that the mother transfers to the fetus. This mainly affects the chest, the thyroid and the brain. That's where researchers are mainly looking microchimerism and how it can influence or affect diseases such as breast cancer or some autoimmune diseases. On the positive side, it is believed that the microchimerism It can be beneficial in certain injuries since it can facilitate the repair of the tissue of the organ that is damaged.
One last investigation on the microchimerism emphasizes the possible implication of this phenomenon in the successive pregnancies of a woman. It is believed that it is possible for cells of an older brother to pass to a smaller one, leading to microquimeras more complex It is also being studied that this transfer could regulate the frequency of a new pregnancy in the mother. This would explain why some pregnancies are inexplicably spoiled.
The microchimerism opens a new world of research that can give very interesting results to solve enigmas that science had not been able to clarify until now. Have you heard of the microchimerism ? Do you have more information about him? If you are interested in topics related to genetics, we invite you to read the post: Do you look more like your father than your mother? The genetics says that if you are a mammal it will be like that