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Biotech Science

Fetuses Provide Stem-Like Cells to Mothers 155

Posted by timothy 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.'"
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Fetuses Provide Stem-Like Cells to Mothers More

Fetuses Provide Stem-Like Cells to Mothers

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  • So this means... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Singletoned ( 619322 ) <singletoned@gmail.com> on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @10:45AM (#9631895) Homepage
    Getting people pregnant may cure them of cancer?

    Doctors are going to have a whale of time!

    "Bend over the table Miss Johnson. I'm going to cure your cancer. It may take several doses though..."

  • previous research... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Blob Pet ( 86206 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @10:46AM (#9631900) Homepage
    I'm not surprised since previous research has shown that a mother's cells can exist in the blood stream of an offspring several years after birth and the mother's blood stream can contain the offspring's cells as well.
    • can you site a reference, please.
      • There was an article published a few years ago on this....

        http://nasw.org/users/ccmorton/globesamplemay200 1. html

        I think there was another article on this earlier this year or last year but I can't remember where.
        • Thank You, this was very informative. However, it did clear up some incorrect information from the parent post... It's not blood cells that are in the body, just cells, and some DNA. Also, it mentions nothing of the mother's cells in the child's body.
  • Whats abortion do in this case?
    • It removes the fetal cells from the womans body and halts any stem-cell-like transfer from happening in all likely-hood. No big mystery here.
      • You saying based on fact or "I think"?

        When and how does this occur, and what effects do abortion at different stages to the this factor?

        "No big mystery" indeed..

      • Re:Well then.. (Score:2, Informative)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )
        Sure, the stem cells are so appalled that they all jump out of the woman's body.

        The article says "...but seem to remain forever in the blood of such women, including those who miscarry or abort."

    • Re:Well then.. (Score:2, Insightful)

      by NanoGator ( 522640 )
      "Whats abortion do in this case?"

      It kills the baby. Next question?

  • Life expectancy? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by booch ( 4157 ) <slashdot2010NO@SPAMcraigbuchek.com> on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @10:48AM (#9631929) Homepage
    Wow, very interesting. I wonder if that has any effect on life expectancy. I.e. is it part of the reason women live longer than men? It would be interesting to see a study comparing mothers versus non-mothers. Although I suspect that the process of raising kids might have a life-reducing impact, counter-acting the overall numbers.

    • I can see it now! Watch the overcrowding of orphanages begin as the newest trend in the name of beauty takes hold!

      "Estelle, are you putting on a little wait?"

      "Why, heavans no, Claire, I'm just going through a little procedure. I'll look ten years younger and live five more years after it's finished in nine months."

      "Is that true? What do I have to do?"

    • As I recall, having children reduces the chances of getting a number of different kinds of cancers related to the reproductive system. (Though who knows, the ways these studies get reported, this may not be considered true anymore!)

      I'd always assumed that lower cancer incidence rates in these cases had something to do with the idea that using the organs helps keep them fit (an idle womb is the (cancer) devil's workshop?) Or, that the long-term use of hormone-manipulating birth control might take a toll som

      • Re:Life expectancy? (Score:3, Informative)

        by Dan Ost ( 415913 )
        According to my wife (a 4th year med-student), pregnancy and birth control that
        simulates pregnancy (like the pill) reduce a women's risk of ovarian cancer.

    • Re:Life expectancy? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by TheLink ( 130905 )
      Not necessarily. Women who don't get pregnant do live fairly long too. Some studies do indicate they're more prone to ovarian cancers, but that may be because having too many periods is not so good for health (counterproductive one might say ;) ).

      Also the stem cells are there, but they may be a cause or contributing factor to the disease. Perhaps the woman's immune system has been "detuned" to not kill those stem cells, and because of that detuning it's not so good at killing diseased cells (malignant/nonm
    • is it part of the reason women live longer than men?

      In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is thought that men should try to conserve their semen as much as possible, as it is viewed as their source of vital energy. The more you ejaculate, the more it reduces your life expectancy.

      Similarly, I remember reading something on a website linked by sex-blog operated by the same people who operate gizmodo.com that japanese "butter dogs" are not to be, uh, made to ejaculate more than once a day, because it can cut t

      • In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it is thought that men should try to conserve their semen as much as possible, as it is viewed as their source of vital energy. The more you ejaculate, the more it reduces your life expectancy.

        ... and beliefs like that are the reason that folk medicine, no matter how effective it may occasionally be, generally fails in comparison to "Western" (actually, just scientific, which is emphatically culture-neutral) medicine. The beliefs may happen to correspond with biological

        • yea but I know from first hand experience that ejaculating 24h or less before an intense workout makes you weak in the knees, and reduces your overall strength and stamina levels.

          but hey, you dont have to take my word for it, try it out for yourself.
          • <shrug> An intense workout in and itself "makes you weak in the knees, and reduces your overall strength and stamina levels" -- but I don't suppose anyone will argue with the fact that working out often increases your life expectancy overall. I can understand why people would develop the belief that ejaculation weakens a man and robs him of some mysterious life energy, but that belief, based on short-term observation and guesswork and hunches rather than systematic study is, like so many such belief
          • And I know that orgasm in general leaves a person weak in the knees, and reduces your overall strength and stamina (nobody wants to move after even halfway-decent sex) - whether you intend to work out within the next 24 hours or not.
            IANAG(uy), so I can't test the ejaculation portion of the hypothesis. However, nobody with whom I've ever been involved seems to have had any problem with their regular workout the next morning, and I certainly don't notice any. Doing without coffee is more likely to cause me pr
            • It's not just me. And I suppose it depends how intense your workout is...

              I also remember reading studies on how semen depletion can affect muscle mass increase (or lack thereof) following a workout.

              But those didnt examine if people got exhausted faster or not.

              I do feel a difference in stamina only when I try to go beyond my strength (which is what I consider a *real* workout), until my muscles (and not my mind) give up. If I had sex the night before, my leg muscles' strength doesn't last as long as when

  • Hey! I'm a guy! No Fair! (Score:3, Funny)

    by justanyone ( 308934 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @10:49AM (#9631941) Homepage Journal
    I'm a guy! Males can't get pregnant! No Fair!

    Maybe something like THIS [imdb.com] might be possible eventually, though.

    -- Kevin J. Rice

  • mmmmmmmmmm... (Score:5, Funny)

    by BortQ ( 468164 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @11:07AM (#9632148) Homepage Journal
    Let this be a lesson to everyone out there who eats babies.

    Eating pregnant mothers can be even healthier !

  • No need for a 'stem cell battle' after all? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by zaphodchak ( 644557 ) on Wednesday July 07, 2004 @11:26AM (#9632333)
    It seems to me as though this debate could possibly end a long-standing conflict about whether fetuses should or should not be harvested for valuable stem cells, which have various and sundry medical applications. This debate has been similar to abortion, but it seems now as though these cells that are produced might be able to be harvested alone, with no harm to the child, the mother, or the pro-life lobbyists. ;) It seems like a bona fide solution which would allow for stem-cell-like research without need to harvest fetuses. The only problem now remaining is how to extract these cells.
  • I've wondered if that may be one of the reasons why some couples start looking more and more like each other.

    The "two become one flesh" thing might be a bit more literal than some people might think. Using ones sense of smell to help choose a mate might be useful in getting a better genetic match - of course that's assuming you don't have artificial hormones and scents screwing things up. Some women's cycles cause them to flip from one preference (more similar genes) to another (more different) though...

    N
  • It would be fantastic to conduct a stufy of women who had tinnitus before getting pregnant (once, twice or perhaps more) and any correlation between getting pregnant and any possible lessening of the level of ringing in her ears. Or perhaps one where an audiologist at least tests hearing acuity before/after/between getting pregnant

    Tinnitus is truly an unmet medical need. I'm sure that many of us who suffer with trauma to the inner ear wonder what stem-cell research portends for us. In the meantime the Amer [ata.org]
  • President Bush has sharply restricted federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells to keep the government from supporting research that he believes destroys human life.

    Yet [barnesandnoble.com] another [barnesandnoble.com] reason [imdb.com], far as I'm concerned [slashdot.org], to get that bum out of office! [cnn.com]
  • ...and I'm quite certain that I'm going to be flamed for saying so, especially since I'm female and pro-choice. ("You unnatural woman, you! Why do you hate babies?")

    Answer: I don't hate babies, even when they spit up. (Or have incredibly stinky diapers.) But we're not talking about babies here. We're not even talking about human fetuses (which despite all of the rhetoric to the contrary, do fit all of the same criteria as other parasitic organisms. The only difference is that the female of other parasitic o

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • It can't survive outside of that petri dish, and it certainly isn't a human being.

      Can you tell me when it becomes a human being? At what point does it become precious human life, and you should get locked up for destroying it? It has to happen sometime.

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