A Possible Alternative

I just finished reading this article: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=scientists-discover-childrens-cells-living-in-mothers-brain

"Scientists Discover Children's Cells Living In Mothers Brains" by Robert Martone.

The article describes how cells are transmitted between mother and child in utero; some of mother's cells migrate to fetus, some of fetus' cells migrate to mother.

This is not an uncommon occurrence, and happens in the animal world as well as in humans.

The connection Mr. Martone makes is that these cells can help or hinder the growth of certain diseases: cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and multiple sclerosis are all mentioned.  Mr. Martone draws the conclusion that women with cancer and Alzheimer's disease somehow allowed less microchimeric cells into their bodies than the average woman without cancer and Alzheimer's.  On the other side of the coin, it is thought that the presence of the microchimeric cells somehow contributed to the growth of Multiple Sclerosis.

I offer a contrary alternative to these conclusions.  Don't get me wrong, I am not offering myself as an expert in the field, just a differing opinion.

It is possible that when the microchimeric cells are faced with cancer and Alzheimer's cells, that they get used up, and are disposed as waste.  In my (laymans) way of thinking, I picture it like using a paper towel.  It is very useful, it has done it's job, but now it is nothing more than waste.  Thus, when the microchimeric cell has finished it's usefulness, it is thrown away, and that would be why the researchers failed to find as many as they may have expected.  In my hypothesis, the cancer and Alzheimer's in these cases were just more of a mess than the body had microchimeric cells (paper towels) to clean up with.

As for the case of the Multiple Sclerosis: the article stated that those with MS had more microchimeric cells than the average person without MS.  Perhaps the MS cells were not the kind the microchimeric cells could clean up.  Of course, it is possible that Mr. Martone was correct in the conclusion that microchimeric cells might somehow assist the MS cells in their growth.  Or, it might be that the microchimeric cells inhibited some other type of cell and the unintended byproduct of that inhibition was the growth of MS cells.

For now, we do not know, but this was a fascinating article anyway

Laura