Mice that are in the company of females are able to remain fertile for a long time 20% longer than mice that are not in the company of females. Is it possible to learn something from this experiment about humans as well?
A few days ago I was invited to visit the home of a friend who recently got married. From the moment I entered the house, I understood that this was a particularly harmonious marriage, in which each of the spouses knows his role very well. My friend greeted me at the front door, treated me to a glass of orange juice he squeezed himself, showed me the kitchen he designed and built and the garden with the orange trees he planted. His wife, at the time, was in her room doing what women do best. What exactly? Well, I don't know that, but she kept doing it in the bedroom. She only came out when it was time for dinner - thick, steaming slices of beef - which my friend also prepared himself. After the meal she retired to her room again.
Only me and the husband remained. I didn't know what to say. My friend got up from the table and busied himself washing the dishes in the sink. After a minute of silence, he turned to me and smiled a big smile, of true happiness radiating from his eyes, and said, "Do you know something? I really enjoy this marriage. I wish they would last as long as possible."
I refrained from giving the immediate answer, that even if they didn't last long, they would surely seem like eternity. Still, on the way home I couldn't help but wonder what happened to my friend. Is it possible that there is a mechanism in nature that causes males to be more satisfied in the company of females? And if there is one, does it also contribute in other ways? When I got home, I went to look for articles online, and already in the first article, a little 'eureka' light bulb turned on above my head. My friend, it turns out, acts in general as the way of nature and imitates the lifestyles of the common laboratory mouse.
According to a study published three days ago in the journal Biology of Reproduction, it turns out that when male laboratory mice are housed together with females, they remain fertile for a long period of time up to twenty percent of that of mice housed in female company. In the same study, the mice housed with the females were able to remain fertile until the age of 32 months - about six months longer than the monk mice.
Ralph Brinster, professor of physiology and head of the research group at the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, claims that housing the male mouse with the female slows down the rate of decline of reproductive processes. how exactly? The answer is still not completely clear, but there is a thread leading to the stem cells in the testicles, which produce the sperm. There are cells that surround and protect those precious stem cells, and it seems that the presence of the females causes a different activity of the protective cells.
For ten years, Brinster has been researching the relationship between the stem cells that produce sperm, and the cells that surround them. He discovered that in old mice, the stem cells manage to survive for a relatively long time, but the mantle cells stop working and are unable to properly regulate the activity of the stem cells. Everything depends, it turns out, on the messages coming from the mouse's environment. The female, apparently, is one of those messages, and her constant presence is able to bring about the survival of the mantle cells and long-term fertility in the male.
Now only one problem remains: my friend is not a mouse, nor a hedgehog. And in any case, although increased fertility may also contribute to mood, it's hard to know how the mice feel about it. And here the big question arises: Can the lessons from research done on mice really be applied to humans? Brinster himself does not know the answer to this either, but claims that if a similar effect can be found in other species as well, then it will be possible to extend the reproductive period of males of endangered species and help in the reconstruction and saving of the species.
Wrapped in thoughts, I turned off the computer, put on my pajamas and went to bed, where my partner tried to concentrate on reading, without success. "Say, do you want to squeeze me some orange juice?" a question.
I sighed. Fertility, it turns out, has a price.
Dedicated to my partner, with love beyond percentages.
11 תגובות
To Michael
First of all, I'm glad you realized that the story "The Death of Mickey Mouse" has nothing to do with you.
And regarding the "pride" of the writers, it is true that I do not censor, but don't think that my opinion is always comfortable with what they write.
Admittedly, sometimes I really don't understand why you censored,
But, sometimes, when blunt things are written in the comments or threats about sentences, then I respond and how I respond, and explain that my opinion is not comfortable with the statement and try to set the record straight.
Sometimes it even works for me because the things stem from the commenter's lack of knowledge and lack of familiarity with you or Avi Blizovsky.
Between us, sometimes... Are you okay.
And so, as Hugin said, a real researcher should not engage in guesswork but check, but if you don't want to, then what to do, we won't force you.
Good Day
Sabdarmish Yehuda –
Google- Sabdarmish Science and Nature.
A real researcher does not engage in 'guessing' but checks 'existing facts' before any misplaced speculation.
A false researcher invents false fictions.
Yehuda:
You will be surprised - but I am calm all the time.
Since I decided that I have nothing to look for on the site and since we found someone who sent here comments defaming my father and me and took the trouble to point out with pride that they were not censored by you (because he knew they would be censored here), I allow myself to guess (the so-called educated guess) that my name appears on your site quite often even though I never wrote , I didn't respond and I didn't even read it.
The timing of the establishment of the site was when you began to complain non-stop about the censorship here and censorship here was imposed only on slanders and your slanders were all aimed at me so that the obvious conclusion is that even if not stated - bypassing this censorship was one of the goals.
It is clear to me that you will not thank me for this and I have no doubt that the website restorer found additional uses for it, so good luck to you.
Regarding Mickey Mouse - what to do? As I said - I am only based on guesses and I admitted this from the beginning, so it is also possible to make a wrong guess.
To Michael
Listen, I was laughing!
Tell me, don't you think I have more important things to do than to let you star on my site.
What is the connection between your son and Mickey Mouse?, with all the "enthusiastic" disagreements between us, I never thought, God forbid, that you are Mickey Mouse!
And the website was not established in honor of you, but in honor of a single article that I will be prevented from publishing in science. (press the galaxies)
Michael, I know you entered my site, it's not shameful and not "assigned", so, read "The Death of Mickey Mouse", calm down, and get out.
I understand!, do you think maybe I meant the name "Mickey" to you??, then no, because I wrote this short story about a decade ago in a creative writing course I took. So I still didn't know the one and only Michael Rothschild. I just learned that Walt Disney was a member of the American Nazi movement in his youth, and somehow, Mickey Mouse seems different to me.
So calm down and it has nothing to do with you.
Good Day,
Sabdarmish Yehuda - "Science and Nature Sabdarmish" website
Hugin:
I do not enter this site.
I have more important things to do.
I can imagine myself actually starring in it quite personally and I also imagine the link to Mickey Mouse.
I will not disable your joy - after all, this site was established mainly to give an outlet to some people who denied them the joy that I slandered on this site.
Good time.
I guess some people out there are regretting that there are no voodoo dolls and pins on the internet.
Say Roy,, do you think that 'fertility' is also wise?? Because for a moment of easy biblical deja vu, King Solomon also came to my mind,,, and all his distinguished entourage,,
And Michael,, you probably haven't read what happened to Mikimaus in 'Science and Nature',,,(don't take it personally,,)
Before experimenting on humans, I would test the hypothesis about Mickey Mouse being something in between a mouse and a human.
The name of his partner - Minimaus - implies that similar results will be obtained.
The question is whether it is only the presence in the company of women that increases the chances of fertility, or is having intercourse the one that causes the miracle.
There is a female - there is a gender.
What happens if I am found to be a female mother without intercourse, does that also have an effect?
My female is shortening my life, so what is it worth that I am more fertile?
So that's why I have a lot of mice in my room...
why not? It can also be thrown on humans.
Prolonged exposure to females makes you a fertile mouse.