First evidence of fetal DNA persisting in human brain tissue

Long-lasting fetal microchimerism in maternal brain is common, affects many brain regions

2012-09-27

(Press-News.org) Small portions of male DNA, most likely left over in a mother's body by a male fetus can be detected in the maternal brain relatively frequently, according to a report published Sep. 26 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by William Chan of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and his colleagues.

The process, called fetal 'microchimerism (Mc)', is common in other tissues such as blood, but this is the first evidence of male Mc in the human female brain. Microchimerism can be both beneficial and harmful to maternal health, since it is associated with processes such as tissue repair, as well as to autoimmune diseases.

Testing for the presence of a particular region of the Y-chromosome in autopsied brain tissues, the research team discovered that 63% of their samples showed potentially long-lasting Mc in multiple brain regions. They also found that women with Alzheimer's disease (AD) had less Mc than women without the disease.

According to the authors, this result warrants further investigation because previous reports have suggested that AD may be more prevalent in women with a higher number of pregnancies compared to childless women. The researchers commented that changes to the blood-brain barrier that occur during pregnancy could facilitate the process by which Mc is acquired into the human brain.

"This is the first evidence that microchimerism can cross the blood-brain barrier to establish male fetal tissue in the human female brain" says Chan.

INFORMATION:

Citation: Chan WFN, Gurnot C, Montine TJ, Sonnen JA, Guthrie KA, et al. (2012) Male Microchimerism in the Human Female Brain. PLOS ONE 7(9): e45592. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045592

Financial Disclosure: This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NS 071418 and AI-41721 to JLN). WFNC was supported by a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Fellowship Award (SIB-95173). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

[Attachments] See images for this press release:

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Viewing gender-specific objects influences perception of gender identity

2012-09-27

Spending too much time looking at high heels may influence how a viewer perceives the gender of an androgynous face, according to new research published Sep. 26 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Amir Homayoun Javadi of Technische Universität, Dresden and his colleagues. The study sheds new light on how the objects surrounding us may influence our perceptions of gender. The authors found that when people view objects highly associated with one gender, like high heels for women or electric shavers for men, for a short period of time and are then asked to identify the ...

Psychology of equine performance and the biology behind laminitis

2012-09-27

Achieving the best performance from a horse is the goal of not just professional riders, but also the millions of amateur and hobby riders all over the world. A new article published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Veterinary Research looks at the issues surrounding training, competition environment and practices, and how the psychology of horse mood, emotion and temperament can be used to enhance performance. A sister article looks at the devastating disease laminitis, and finds that the anti-inflammatory protein apolipoprotein A-IV (APOA-IV) is raised in chronic ...

Scientists make old muscles young again in attempt to combat aging

2012-09-27

An international team of scientists have identified for the first time a key factor responsible for declining muscle repair during ageing, and discovered how to halt the process in mice with a common drug. Although an early study, the findings provide clues as to how muscles lose mass with age, which can result in weakness that affects mobility and may cause falls. The study, to be published in the journal Nature, involved researchers from King's College London, Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital. The study looked at stem cells found inside muscle ...

TB drug could reduce mortality for MDR-TB and XDR-TB cases

2012-09-27

Results from an observational study evaluating a new anti-TB drug have found that the treatment can improve outcomes and reduce mortality among patients with both MDR-TB and XDR-TB. The research, published online ahead of print today (27 September 2012) in the European Respiratory Journal, suggests a drug called delamanid could have a public health benefit for MDR-TB and also for XDR-TB, as few effective treatment options are currently available. Over the past two decades, multidrug-resistant TB (MDR-TB) has emerged as a significant public health threat, with strains ...

Salt marsh carbon may play role in slowing climate warming, study shows

2012-09-27

A warming climate and rising seas will enable salt marshes to more rapidly capture and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, possibly playing a role in slowing the rate of climate change, according to a new study led by a University of Virginia environmental scientist and published in the Sept. 27 issue of the journal Nature. Carbon dioxide is the predominant so-called "greenhouse gas" that acts as sort of an atmospheric blanket, trapping the Earth's heat. Over time, an abundance of carbon dioxide can change the global climate, according to generally accepted scientific ...

WSU study finds dioxin causes disease and reproductive problems across generations

2012-09-27

PULLMAN, Wash.—Since the 1960s, when the defoliant Agent Orange was widely used in Vietnam, military, industry and environmental groups have debated the toxicity of its main ingredient, the chemical dioxin, and how it should be regulated. But even if all the dioxin were eliminated from the planet, Washington State University researchers say its legacy will live on in the way it turns genes on and off in the descendants of people exposed over the past half century. Writing in the journal PLoS ONE, biologist Michael Skinner and members of his lab say dioxin administered ...

Inadequate cellular rest may explain effects of aging on muscles

2012-09-27

Is aging inevitable? What factors make older tissues in the human body less able to maintain and repair themselves, as in the weakening and shrinkage of aging muscles in humans? A new study from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators and collaborators at King's College London describes the mechanism behind impaired muscle repair during aging and a strategy that may help rejuvenate aging tissue by manipulating the environment in which muscle stem cells reside. The report will appear in the journal Nature and has received advance online release. Rare muscle ...

Gut bacteria could cause diabetes

2012-09-27

VIDEO: Studying gut bacteria can reveal a range of human illness. Now, new research shows that the composition of a person’s intestinal bacteria could play an important role in the development... Click here for more information. The number of people suffering from type 2 diabetes world-wide has risen rapidly in recent years, and scientists estimate that just as many people could be suffering from the illness without realising it. New research now indicates that your gut bacteria ...

New AACAP Practice Parameter on gay, lesbian, bisexual, and gender variant issues

2012-09-27

Washington D.C., September 26, 2012 – The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) is proud to announce its new Practice Parameter on issues related to and affecting gay, lesbian, bisexual, and gender variant youth. Gay, lesbian, bisexual, and gender variant children and adolescents face unique developmental challenges and stressors that can influence their mental health and wellbeing. Social issues such as stigma, bullying, and discrimination, and personal factors like internalized prejudice and feelings of being different are just a few of the concerns ...

BGI presents a metagenome-wide association study of gut microbiota in type 2 diabetes

2012-09-27

September 26, 2012, Shenzhen, China – BGI announces the online publication in the international journal Nature of a novel metagenomic study on human gut microbiota and their potential impact on type 2 diabetes (T2D), the most common form of diabetes. This work lays an important foundation for comprehensively understanding the genetic characteristics of gut microbiota and their relationship to T2D risk, as well as providing a new way of classifying microbes detected by DNA sequence. The work here also opens the way for transferring the potential value of a gut-microbiota-based ...

First evidence of fetal DNA persisting in human brain tissue

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: