Among the people there are chimeras

At the end of the 1990s to the medical center in Boston (BIDMC) patient received 52 years, which required a kidney transplant. Finding a suitable donor, doctors first of all addressed to the next of kin of the woman and took a blood sample from her husband and her three sons. To the surprise of the patient's genetic analysis showed that the biological mother, she is the only one, the other two sons - strangers. The woman thought that was an error in the data, since the three children she bore personally. However, the second test showed that there was no error - haplotype two sons did not coincide with the mother haplotype.

Doctor Margot Kruskall was puzzled. She sought the help of colleagues from around the world. Those sent to different versions of the detective properties spoofing babies in the hospital until the secret of fertilization, in which a woman does not want to admit. Scientific explanations no one offered. Then Margot decided to conduct additional research. Instead of a blood test she took the test from the patient's other tissues (thyroid, mouth, hair, etc.). The results amazed everyone: some fabrics had one haplotype, and some - quite different, confirming kinship sons. In other words, a woman's body consisted of two genetically diverse cell types.

More than 50 years ago in the womb of the woman was a very rare event, two embryos, the two fraternal female twins fused at an early stage of pregnancy, creating one embryo. In medical terminology, the patient is a chimera tetragameticheskuyu (tetragametic chimera), t. E. The body caused by the four sex cells - two eggs and two sperm.

No one can know exactly how common chimeras. No special tests do not detect them. Recently multiplied evidence that part of the maternal cells may move into the body of the child and continue to function and share there for decades. This phenomenon is called microchimerism.

Source: nature-wonder.livejournal.com

via factroom.ru