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
