MOTHERS always have their children in the back of their minds – now it seems that this is quite literally true. Fetal DNA can enter a mother’s brain and remain there for decades, according to autopsy data.
During a pregnancy, cells from mother and fetus can cross the placenta and survive for decades in the skin, liver and spleen – a phenomenon known as fetal microchimerism.
Fetal DNA can also cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the brains of pregnant mice. To see whether the same is true in women, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle and her colleagues autopsied 59 female brains. They found the male Y chromosome in 63 per cent of them (PLoS One, ).
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Nelson says that pregnancy is the most likely explanation for the presence of male DNA, but having an organ transplant or an older brother, for example, could also be a factor.
Such foreign DNA may be one explanation for why certain brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are .