Foetomaternal Cell exchange

Whilst watching a video by one of my favourite YouTube channels AsapSCIENCE , I was made aware of the fact that foetuses donate stem cells to the mother in order to repair any damage which occurs during gestation and therefore decided to do some further research on the topic.

Transfer of cells between the foetus and mother is known as microchimerism. Meaning that a foetus may harbour cells from it's mother and vice versa. research also shows that due to this transfer cells from an older sibling may also exist inside the baby. 

A team of scientists in New York conducted a study on lab mice. They genetically engineered males to produce a green-fluorescent protein in their cells, half of the offspring of these mice bred with normal females also produced this protein in all cells. The scientists inflicted heart attacks on the pregnant mice and then studied their hearts a few weeks later. Fluorescent cells now existed alongside the maternal cardiac tissue as heart and blood cells.

Previous studies have shown that this also occurs in tissues such as the liver, kidney, lung and brain. The reasons why this does happen are unclear, however it is likely that it is the foetus promotes it's own survival by ensuring that the mother is healthy. 

It is suggested that alongside stem cell transfer another possible benefit of this microchimerism is that due to the foetal cell being half-foreign to the mother, it alerts the immune system which could stem the growth of tumours. This idea is backed up with findings of more microchimeric cells in healthy women than in those with breast cancer.

I personally find this amazing and only serves to highlight just how well adapted to survival we are as a species, which when reminded of is still pretty remarkable.

Bibliography:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2633676/
http://seriousfacts.com/when-a-pregnant-woman-suffers-organ-damage-ex-a-heart-attack-the-fetus-will-send-stem-cells-to-repair-the-damaged-organ/
http://www.microchimerism.org/
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scientists-discover-childrens-cells-living-in-mothers-brain&page=2
http://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-257127027/your-mother-s-always-with-you-material-feminism

Image credit: 
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS4btgoDfZe7o9ntGIBsfSy8e5e2RAI_rDmZp-Vq3p1AmG2h7mT

A2 Choices

Following the results of my AS results. I have decided to carry forward three of my four subjects. These now are: Biology, Psychology and German.

I adore Biology, science has always been a passion but biology is so much more than just observing how things are, it's understanding how things work and then using our problem-solving skills to apply this knowledge to our own lives. For the majority of people that means knowing how what they eat affects their bodies or how to get the best out of exercise. For me, this subject will provide me with a basis for which I can develop my biological knowledge in a more medical direction and therefore use to help other people, which is always something I strive to do.

Psychology is fascinating, it's not at all what I expected it to be as a subject. I believed it would concern the brain and how mechanisms within the brain ultimately come together to create thoughts and behaviours, how wrong I was. I have learnt about the many different factors which influence behaviour aside from genes and physiological mechanisms using evolutionary, cognitive, bahvioural and psychodynamic approaches. I have learnt how to evaluate methodology including analysing the ethics and validity of a study. I have learnt how to discuss major debates on a topic such as nature vs Nurture, Determinism vs Free will and Nomothetic vs Ideographic. I love the range of material that we cover and am learning something new and exciting every lesson. I have already been using the knowledge I learn in class to help me analyse material in everyday life. To name just a few of these situations: I find it easier to determine how generalisable studies or information I read about are or understand and consider how ethics plays into real-life situations.

I also believe that language abilities are very important to society, in fact they are essential. Languages are how we communicate with others and having at the very least basic skills in a language different to one's own is incredibly beneficial to that individual. There are the obvious advantages: communicating and conversing with people of different nationalities or making life easier when you go on holiday. However I know that taking a modern foreign language such as German to A-level has altered the way I think. German is a very structured and logical language and in using this language my thoughts also become more logical, structured and direct. It can be difficult to translate from English to German and frequently one has to use a lot of English skills in order to find a method with which a sentence can be formed in German. This is something which will give me an advantage following education, I believe. 

I know these subjects may only be another step in my journey through education, but they are my passion and could not imagine a life in which I would not hugely benefit from what they teach me.

NCS

This summer I worked as a volunteer for the National Citizen Service, which I also took part in last year as a participant rather than a member of staff. We had a week-long residential in Gilwern and then Greenwich University. I found there are certainly more challenges when working as a staff member, however it was a role that I did enjoy. I enjoyed feeling a part of a team bigger than the participant group, I felt privileged to be included in staff meetings and it was great to only have to share a room with one other staff member with the added luxury of mugs and a kettle in the room. I must admit though that when it came to having to speak to participants because they were misbehaving or the like it was difficult, but otherwise the general vibe of encouragement and pushing them to do the very best was one of my favourite parts of the role. Watching some of the participants start off as very introverted or shy and then blossom into more confident and social people was a joy, and all of this while everyone (staff included) were having the time of their lives doing canoeing, rock climbing and caving.

Views from the mountain we all climbed

Fellow staff member winning group game of splat

Group campfire at the end of the week

Entonox/Gas and Air

This week I was asked by my chemistry teacher to present a chemical to the class. We were told that we could talk about any chemical that we wanted to. I therefore decided to pick one from one of my favourite topics, pregnancy, and develop it to interest my whole class and to satisfy my teacher by including extra information about how the chemical's structure helped with it's functioning etc.

This was the end result. However as I am unable to physically present it some elements may seem undeveloped. Hopefully much of the information I wanted to include makes itself clear without me having to present.

Giving Blood

Since I turned 17 last month I was adamant that I would start giving blood as soon as I possibly could. Today was the day I had booked and I went feeling confident because I knew I was in the hands of professionals and that I was doing something for a good cause; it also helps when needles don't particularly freak you out.

I wasn't sure what to expect so I walked in with an open mind. What I found was a relaxing and open environment that immediately made me feel at ease, the nurses were friendly and made sure that I was comfortable, especially so as it was my first time donating.

My only real memories of needles were the HPV and Tetanus, both of those were very manageable but I wasn't sure if this would be as easy to deal with. In fact it was better. I felt a slight pinch as it went into my vein, then a few minutes later it was out again and I had completed my donation. I hardly felt any kind of discomfort throughout the session and I experienced no after effects such as dizziness or pain.

Overall I came away with a great satisfaction but some of the information I had come across in the various booklets I received made me curious. They stated that Men could donate every 12 weeks however Women could only donate every 16 weeks. I thought to clarify this for myself.

A brief look at the NHS website suggests that this is because monthly periods, especially heavy ones, mean that women are more likely to become anaemic. Extremely heavy periods are also known as menorrhagia. A normal volume of blood loss would be considered between 30-40 ml and heavy bleeding between 60-80 ml, however the combined loss of blood through menstruation and a donation could increase the likelihood of a woman developing an iron deficiency. Consequences of being anaemic could be dizziness, feeling faint or having shortness of breath, it therefore makes sense that the NHS takes precautions such as this to ensure women are as safe they possibly can be when they give blood.

Image Credit: http://www.thecivicstourport.co.uk/resources/National-Blood-Service-logo.gif

First Aid and Safeguarding

Today I completed both my first aid and safeguarding training for NCS. We covered:

• Choking
• Seizures
• Asthma
• Sprains/strains
• Bleeding
• Breaks
• Head injuries
• Recovery position
• CPR

I am glad we covered these topics because although I'm confident with CPR, recovery position and bleeding, it's not so much the case with seizures and sprains/strains. It had the potential to be quite dull at moments however the instructor was a joker and helped to make topics quite light-hearted, he made everyone laugh frequently and then that made listening and taking in what he said the easiest thing in the world.

I incredibly enjoyed the safeguarding course, it was interesting and we had practical tasks which we discussed in groups such as planning an activity for 10-year olds and what is bad practice vs what is abuse. I also got into a slightly heated debate about whether a little bit of bullying is a part of growing up and good for the child (my view on the matter is, of course, that it is not). But the discussion boosted some of my confidence and helped me to realise just how much I love debating, deeply thinking about something and fighting for what I believe in.

This training day has only made me more pumped for next month when we get to go and volunteer for real. NCS starts in just 25 days! It's all happening very quickly and I'm just so excited.

Image credit: http://www.brooksbymelton.ac.uk/sites/default/files/backgrounds/first-aid.jpg

Is HIV curable?

Many have heard of the two-and-a-half year old girl born with HIV in the USA who has recently been announced as 'cured' of the virus. The main question that people are asking is, "How?"
The child was given anti-retroviral therapy within hours of birth following concerns from doctors that the child was at high risk, as her mother did not receive prenatal HIV treatment. 
Now Doctors have tried to search her for signs of the virus and have found none.

However this does not necessarily bring us closer to finding a cure. The circumstances of this case are not at all typical of people with HIV. Due to the nature of the virus many people do not realise that they are infected until it has already been established. It seems to be that in this case it has only been so effective because of how quickly intervention began to fight the virus from taking hold.

Although there is currently no actual cure for the virus, this is seen to be an encouraging start.
This is certainly a huge step forward in terms of finding ways to beat the virus. It's already known that someone receiving anti-retroviral therapy reduces the chance of passing on the virus by 96%. But can we completely eradicate HIV?

there are many ongoing experimental methods which are detailed in this article by the BBC. It also informs us that HIV transmission can be prevented using very simple methods such as caesarian sections, not breastfeeding, drugs and protected sex. Surely these prevention methods should be viewed as more beneficial than searching for a cure which although seemingly possible, is still nowhere in sight.

- Jess

Information on how HIV reproduces inside white blood cells:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Education-resources/Education-and-learning/animations/viral-diseases/wtdv026676.htm

Image credit:
http://wellcomeimages.org/indexplus/obf_images/fb/b9/c1a2ff7859133adfc61945619c90.jpg

Can our parents' experiences change our genes?

We all know that the DNA we're born with doesn't change throughout our entire lives, except does it?

Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity that do not involve alterations to the genetic code but still get passed down to at least one successive generation. It's thought to be a way in which environmental experiences influence how genes are expressed. This is done using chemical tags (or epigenetic marks) attached to DNA which can turn certain genes on and off. The most common of these tags are a methyl group, when it attaches to our DNA it blocks the proteins and therefore turns that specific gene off.

It's thought that between each generation the epigenetic marks are erased (in cells called primordial gene cells, the precursors to sperm and eggs). This 'reprogramming' allows all genes to be read afresh for each new person. This process is fairly efficient in resetting genes, however some tags manage to escape and therefore pass on to the offspring.

Understanding this mechanism could lead to advances in adult diseases linked to the build up of deviant epigenetic marking such as cancers and aging cells.

How exactly can our environment affect our genes? studies on a rat pup's epigenome show that methyl groups silence the GR receptor in the pup's brain cells and the affection shown by the mother during the pup's first weeks have a significant effect on the pup's DNA. Strong nurturing signals remove the methyl groups and activate the GR gene. This epigenetic pattern remains even when the pup becomes an adult and the gene enables the rats to cope well with stress later on in their lives.

Other animal studies focus on how our diet can change our epigenome.They show that a diet deficient of methyl-donating foods during late fetal/ early postnatal development caused under-methylation of the genome. When certain genes such as the agouti gene are completely unmethylated, the mouse is yellow in colour, obese and prone to diabetes and cancer. However when pregnant yellow mice were fed a methyl-rich diet, their pups were brown and healthy and remained so for the rest of their lives.

Bibliography:
http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2013/News/WTP051486.htm
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/rats/
http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/nutrition/

Image Credit: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/nutrition/images/agouti.jpg

Just a TRIM

The other day in biology our teacher decided to show us a video about the immune system and how our cells protect themselves from the threat of a viral infection. One particular part of the video mentioned the protein TRIM 21, I was curious and decided to do some research on what it really was.

When a virus enters the body it is attacked by our immune system, antibodies attach themselves to the virus and usually this paralyses it and makes it easy prey for our white blood cells. However some viruses do manage to escape and then move on the enter the cells. It was thought that once a virus had reached this stage and penetrated the cell, it was infected and the only possible way of preventing the spread of the infection was to destroy itself.

adenovirus being degraded by a proteasome

It was recently discovered that there is one more line of defense inside the cell against the intruder. Antibodies that have attached themselves to the virus stay attached when it enters the cell. Tripartite motif (TRIM 21) is a naturally occurring protein inside the cell which identifies substances marked with antibodies and tags it with ubiquitin. This essentially marks it ready for degradation by the proteasome. The proteasome is an organelle designed to degradate unneeded or damaged proteins and it acts as a big recycler, breaking them down so that they might be used in the construction of new proteins. Once a virus has been marked, the proteasome breaks it down just as it would a protein.

But how can we use this information in producing new therapies to fight viruses? Many are calling it the breakthrough that will could us cure the common cold, surely this can be done by giving us more TRIM 21. This may be done by encouraging the immune system to create more TRIM 21 so that it can be more effective in destroying viruses. Derek Lowe suggests that another solution such as encouraging the production of more antibodies would be the best way. It makes sense, seeing as it's not due to a lack of TRIM 21 that viruses manage to infect cells; it's because sometimes a virus escapes being tagged by antibodies, evading notice and slipping through the defense systems.

I reccomend that you watch this video, a clip from BBC's The Hidden Life of the Cell

Bibliography:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/a-cure-for-the-common-cold-may-finally-be-achieved-as-a-result-of-a-remarkable-discovery-in-a-cambridge-laboratory-2122607.html
http://pipeline.corante.com/archives/2010/11/03/trim21_a_cure_for_the_common_cold_maybe_not_.php