But as research in this new field accumulates, so too do the perplexing contradictions about these rare alien elements. In 1996, Diana Bianchi, a geneticist at Tufts Medical Center, found male fetal cells in a mother's blood 27 years after she had given birth.Įvidence is building that those fetal cells aren't just lounging around in Mom in fact, they might be active participants in a mother's health. After the baby is born, those numbers plummet but some cells remain. It turns out that all pregnant women carry some fetal cells and DNA, with up to 6 percent of the free-floating DNA in the mother's blood plasma coming from the fetus. ![]() But it was a surprise when researchers at Stanford University, found a few cells with Y sex chromosomes in a pregnant woman's blood in 1979 those cells had to have come from her son, since women have only X chromosomes. Identical twins also can exchange these microchimeric cells through their shared placenta. We've known for more than a century that cells from a pregnant woman can make their way through the placenta to an unborn child. Scientists increasingly think these silent signals from the fetus may influence a mother's risk of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases, even decades after she has given birth. Mother and child are engaged in a silent chemical conversation throughout pregnancy, with bits of genetic material and cells passing not only from mother to child but also from child to mother. ![]() But she might not realize that the baby is already talking back. A pregnant woman knows she is shaping her child's future from the moment of conception.
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