The link between a female parent and kid is profound, and new research suggests a physical connectedness even deeper than anyone thought. The profound psychological and physical bonds shared past the female parent and her child begin during gestation when the mother is everything for the developing fetus, supplying warmth and sustenance, while her heartbeat provides a soothing constant rhythm.

The concrete connection between mother and fetus is provided by the placenta, an organ, built of cells from both the mother and fetus, which serves as a conduit for the exchange of nutrients, gasses, and wastes. Cells may migrate through the placenta between the female parent and the fetus, taking up residence in many organs of the body including the lung, thyroid, muscle, liver, heart, kidney and skin. These may have a broad range of impacts, from tissue repair and cancer prevention to sparking allowed disorders.

Information technology is remarkable that information technology is so common for cells from one individual to integrate into the tissues of another distinct person. We are accustomed to thinking of ourselves as singular autonomous individuals, and these foreign cells seem to confute that notion, and suggest that most people bear remnants of other individuals. Every bit remarkable every bit this may exist, stunning results from a new study bear witness that cells from other individuals are as well found in the brain. In this study, male person cells were found in the brains of women and had been living there, in some cases, for several decades. What affect they may have had is now merely a gauge, but this study revealed that these cells were less mutual in the brains of women who had Alzheimer'south disease, suggesting they may be related to the health of the brain.

Nosotros all consider our bodies to be our own unique being, so the notion that nosotros may harbor cells from other people in our bodies seems strange. Even stranger is the idea that, although nosotros certainly consider our actions and decisions as originating in the activity of our own individual brains, cells from other individuals are living and functioning in that complex structure. However, the mixing of cells from genetically distinct individuals is not at all uncommon. This condition is called chimerism after the fire-breathing Chimera from Greek mythology, a beast that was part snake part lion and part goat. Naturally occurring chimeras are far less ominous though, and include such creatures as the slime mold and corals.

 Microchimerism is the persistent presence of a few genetically distinct cells in an organism. This was first noticed in humans many years ago when cells containing the male "Y" chromosome were found circulating in the blood of women after pregnancy. Since these cells are genetically male, they could not have been the women's ain, simply near likely came from their babies during gestation.

In this new study, scientists observed that microchimeric cells are not just found circulating in the blood, they are besides embedded in the encephalon. They examined the brains of deceased women for the presence of cells containing the male "Y" chromosome. They found such cells in more 60 per centum of the brains and in multiple brain regions. Since Alzheimer's disease is more mutual in women who accept had multiple pregnancies, they suspected that the number of fetal cells would be greater in women with Advertisement compared to those who had no evidence for neurological disease. The results were precisely the contrary: in that location were fewer fetal-derived cells in women with Alzheimer's. The reasons are unclear.

Microchimerism virtually commonly results from the exchange of cells beyond the placenta during pregnancy, however in that location is too evidence that cells may exist transferred from mother to infant through nursing. In addition to commutation betwixt mother and fetus, there may be exchange of cells betwixt twins in utero, and there is also the possibility that cells from an older sibling residing in the mother may find their way dorsum beyond the placenta to a younger sibling during the latter's gestation. Women may have microchimeric cells both from their mother as well as from their own pregnancies, and at that place is even prove for competition between cells from grandmother and infant inside the female parent.

What it is that fetal microchimeric cells exercise in the mother's body is unclear, although there are some intriguing possibilities. For example, fetal microchimeric cells are like to stem cells in that they are able to become a multifariousness of unlike tissues and may aid in tissue repair. One enquiry group investigating this possibility followed the activity of fetal microchimeric cells in a mother rat after the maternal heart was injured: they discovered that the fetal cells migrated to the maternal eye and differentiated into heart cells helping to repair the impairment. In creature studies, microchimeric cells were found in maternal brains where they became nerve cells, suggesting they might be functionally integrated in the brain. It is possible that the same may be true of such cells in the human brain.

These microchimeric cells may also influence the allowed system. A fetal microchimeric jail cell from a pregnancy is recognized by the mother's allowed organization partly as belonging to the mother, since the fetus is genetically half identical to the mother, but partly foreign, due to the begetter'due south genetic contribution. This may "prime" the allowed arrangement to be alert for cells that are like to the self, only with some genetic differences. Cancer cells which arise due to genetic mutations are just such cells, and there are studies which suggest that microchimeric cells may stimulate the immune organization to stem the growth of tumors. Many more than microchimeric cells are found in the blood of healthy women compared to those with breast cancer, for instance, suggesting that microchimeric cells can somehow prevent tumor germination. In other circumstances, the immune system turns against the self, causing significant harm. Microchimerism is more mutual in patients suffering from Multiple Sclerosis than in their good for you siblings, suggesting chimeric cells may accept a detrimental role in this disease, maybe past setting off an autoimmune set on.

This is a burgeoning new field of research with tremendous potential for novel findings too as for practical applications. But information technology is also a reminder of our interconnectedness.

Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would similar to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Earth. He can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.