27 2002 June
Fetal cells can remain in the body of mothers decades later
The pregnancy. This phenomenon may explain why most diseases
The autoimmunity attacks women
By Yanai Ofran
Embryonic cells. For years, the researcher who claimed that the cells of the fetus won
can remain in the mother's body, for disparaging reactions
The American Ministry of Health stated a few weeks ago that lupus is
One of the leading causes of death for women in the US. Who has the disease
Will pass, usually, a long mask of agony before he hears the doctor foretelling
him for the final diagnosis. It will start with fever or inflammation, maybe not even
They will bring him to the doctor, and he will continue with non-specific symptoms that may
Eventually run it from expert to expert. Lupus can attack the
The skin, the kidneys, the liver and basically every organ in the body. Therefore, at first at least,
It is hard to recognize her.
Quite a few lupus patients enter a cycle of complications that may end
In death, as a result of wrong diagnoses and inappropriate drugs.
One in every 1,000 adults is affected by the disease. Actually it is more accurate to say one.
Ninety percent of lupus patients are women. Lupus is an autoimmune disease.
That is, a disease in which the body is attacked by its own immune system. majority
The autoimmune diseases for some reason prefer to attack women.
It is not clear what incites the immune system, a collection of biological destroyers
which are supposed to eliminate foreign invaders, effectively attack precisely the body on which it is placed
They are supposed to protect. It is even less clear why this malfunction occurs in women
several times more frequently than in men. More and more scientists
In recent years, people have begun to believe that the explanation for the phenomenon lies in pregnancies.
More precisely in something that the passers-by leave behind.
Dr. Diana Bianchi, a doctor from Boston, discovered ten years ago, by chance,
A surprising phenomenon: fetal cells can remain in the body of mothers
Decades after pregnancy. For years, reactions to her research ranged from
Contempt for bewilderment. Even some of the researchers who did not suspect that the results were fake or
Errors said to be very strange, almost unthinkable. On time
During pregnancy, fetal cells wander in the mother's blood system. But a system
The immune system is supposed to identify these cells as invaders and eliminate them. "I stopped
Count how many times this article has been rejected," said Bianchi in a lecture a few days ago
Weeks. In the end, after years of rejections, she succeeded in 1996
Convince the editors of the Journal of the American National Academy of Sciences
publish its results.
In the article, Bianchi reported that cells with a Y chromosome were discovered in the blood of women
ie cells of males. The only logical explanation she could find was you
These cells, or their ancestors, were left behind by the embryos that the women
Be merciful. One of these fetuses was already 27 years old at the time of conducting the study
More than two and a half decades were not enough for the mother's immune system to
eliminate the embryonic cells. Bianchi raised the possibility that these cells
They will stay with the mother forever.
In the years after the publication of the article, more and more evidence was added that it was appropriate
Fetuses remain in the mother's body for many years after pregnancy. One of the studies
He discovered, for example, that a significant part of the thyroid gland that was removed from the body of a sick woman
was built for male cells. The embryonic cells left behind by the son of
The woman settled in the thyroid gland and created a tissue, perhaps to restore some kind
old injury A similar phenomenon was found in the liver of another patient, which was constructed
from a mosaic of male and female cells.
There were theorists who suggested that this is a blessed mechanism - during pregnancy
She asks whether stem cells from the fetus, which will be used as raw material for repairs and renovations
when needed. Thus, bypassing the religious right in Congress, the mothers use
in the embryonic stem cells to compensate for the biological cost of pregnancy.
Other theorists have speculated that the phenomenon causes more harm than good.
Embryonic stem cells can develop into cells of any type, including cells
immune. Immune cells are trained to attack anything that is foreign, anything
that we are not self. If immune cells of the fetus circulate in the mother's blood,
They will recognize every cell and protein in the mother's body as foreign, and therefore may attack
them. The result will be similar to an autoimmune disease - an attack on the system
The vaccine on the organs of the body.
At a conference held a few weeks ago in California, several researchers presented information
which confirms this thesis. It turned out that in some lupus patients it is possible to find
Inside the wounds are male cells - probably cells left there by the children. also
In other autoimmune diseases, evidence has been found linking the cells
the embryos to the disease.
The magazine "Science" this week reviewed the incarnations of this theory. but
It turns out that even the fathers of the theory admit that embryonic cells do not
can explain all the findings. Autoimmune diseases also attack
Men or women who have never conceived. Even in women who do not suffer from diseases
Autoimmunity is sometimes detected in fetal cells, which for some reason live quietly
absolute and cause no harm.
Anne Reed of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester found signs that suggest cell movement
It is two-way - even the mother can give such dubious gifts
to her descendants. She tested children who suffered from an autoimmune disease that attacks the
the muscles and found in the affected areas a suspicious amount of female cells, no
All the patients she examined were boys. These cells imply that one
The causes of the disease are immune cells that have penetrated from the mother's blood system
to the children's bodies, probably during pregnancy.
But Reid admits that her findings alone cannot explain the disease.
The amount of maternal cells is surprising, but not enough to cause
for the severe inflammation from which her patients suffer. Probably the foreign cells
attacking, but something causes the self cells to join in as well. "We still are
In the observation phase," says one of the researchers. "People stand around and say
'It's amazing', but we still don't really understand what all these findings are
They say."
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