Men on the Mind: Study Finds Male DNA in Women's Brains
Wednesday, September 26, 2012 - 17:00
in Biology & Nature
Male DNA is commonly found in the brains of women, most likely derived from prior pregnancy with a male fetus, according to first-of-its-kind research conducted at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. While the medical implications of male DNA and male cells in the brain are unknown, studies of other kinds of microchimerism - the harboring of genetic material and cells that were exchanged between fetus and mother during pregnancy - have linked the phenomenon to autoimmune diseases and cancer, sometimes for better and other times for worse.