Posted on 11/04/2012 10:20:50 AM PST by blam
Male DNA Found In Female Brains
Discovery suggests fetal cells can slip through blood-brain barrier
By Laura Sanders
November 3, 2012; Vol.182 #9 (p. 12)
Children live on in their mothers’ brains for decades, and not just as memories. Scientists have found pockets of male DNA, presumably from boy fetuses, in the brain tissue of women who died in their 70s.
Not only is male DNA present in women’s brains, it’s common, researchers report online September 26 in PLOS ONE. J. Lee Nelson of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and her colleagues found snippets of a male-only gene in the brains of 18 of 26 women who died without neurological disease. The male DNA was spread throughout their brains.
The technique used in the study couldn’t distinguish if the DNA was from intact, functional brain cells, though in a separate test of brain tissue from a different woman, Nelson and colleagues did spot nuclei from male cells in the brain. Earlier studies in mice hinted that these foreign cells can integrate themselves into the brain and start functioning as nerve cells.
So far, cells from fetuses have turned up in women’s blood, livers, lungs, heart and other organs, so finding male DNA in the brain isn’t a complete shock, says geneticist Kirby Johnson of Tufts University in Medford, Mass., who wasn’t involved in the study. “From everything we knew, it’s not really that surprising.”What’s interesting is how the DNA could have gotten there. Male cells from a fetus could have broken through the blood-brain barrier — a wall that protects the fragile brain from pathogens in the blood. But that shouldn’t be possible, Johnson says.
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(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
***Male DNA Found In Female Brains***
Mmm! Need some milk gravy or scrambled eggs to go with that! Yummy!
“wouldn’t argue with men about things that are obvious”
You mean things like how wrong you are? :-P
Well, they say condoms are only 97% effective . . .
I don’t think testosterone from a male child would make changes in females. Females regularly produce testosterone on their own, IIRC, it is the primary (up)regulator of the female sex drive.
But whatever testosterone they have is totally dominated by their estrogens.
This could explain my transformation from liberal Democrat to conservative Republican after the birth of my son.
And all this time I thought it was my revulsion to the smug faced Clintons.
Oh, when I said the barrier was "just tissue"? Yeah, I thought about that after I saw it get posted, but the context is obviously not the same. Glad somebody else noticed it too; I'm not crazy....
You are correct, no way could it be true. If it was women would never ask for directions.
Interesting .... Our five-year-old twins are boys, and I am definitely different than before their birth. Part or most of that (perhaps all, of course) is just by virtue of becoming a parent, which certainly rocked my world! But I have noticed I am much more of a “with your shield or on it” mother than I ever thought I would be. I really turn into a drill sergeant at times, which is not how I used to be. But maybe that’s just from trying to manage a pair of crazy twins! ;o)
Generally speaking, men don't ask for directions because they are more than likely headed somewhere they don't want to go anyway; like a wedding, funeral or some other kind of crap occasion their woman insists on attending.
We don't need directions to the firing range, the bar, our friend's houses, etc.
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