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hand, has been unanimously endorsed and promoted bythe British broadsheet newspapers.And Goldacre’s Twitter feed has been running hot. In twotweets on 23 October, he referred to the woefulinadequacy of the European Medicines Agency (the EUdrugs regulator) and its desultory attempts to create anadequate and functional trials register. This prompted UKMember of Parliament and doctor Sarah Wollaston toask questions about missing and suppressed data in theBritish House of Commons. And the UK Health MinisterNorman Lamb has agreed to meet academics to discussthis “really important” issue.It’s clear that Goldacre cares about medicine, patientsand science. If he is able to maintain the rage, his effortsmight help usher in a new era of truly evidenced-basedbiomedicine. But there’s also cause for scepticism.Goldacre himself looks to stronger regulation andlegislation to fix the problem. Others are not so sanguine.Veteran economist Harry Shutt emailed Goldacre, saying:this profit-maximising industry is totallyunsuited to being run on profitmaximisinglines by conventionalshareholders.Shutt suggests public ownership of pharmaceuticalcompanies may be the solution. While Goldacremaintains that he doesn’t want “a central-commandstate economy”, this may be the only way to containgreed and corruption within the pharmaceutical industry.[Source: THE CONVERSATION 23 November 2012]TED Talk by Ben Goldacre – June 2012www.ted.com/talks/ben_goldacre_what_doctors_don_t_know_about_the_drugs_they_prescribe.htmlDon’t miss it!2012 Outreach ConferenceDVDOrder Form on Bio-Balance websitehttp://www.biobalance.org.au/orPhone: 0411 190 158DVDs of previous Outreach Conferencesalso available from above Phone No.Scientists Discover Children’s CellsLiving in Mothers’ BrainsRobert MartoneSciAm Blog 6 Dec 2012The link between a mother and child is profound, andnew research suggests a physical connection evendeeper than anyone thought. The profound psychologicaland physical bonds shared by the mother and her childbegin during gestation when the mother is everything forthe developing fetus, supplying warmth and sustenance,while her heartbeat provides a soothing constantrhythm.The physical connection between mother and fetus isprovided by the placenta, an organ, built of cells fromboth the mother and fetus, which serves as a conduit forthe exchange of nutrients, gasses, and wastes. Cells maymigrate through the placenta between the mother andthe fetus, taking up residence in many organs of thebody including the lung, thyroid muscle, liver, heart,kidney and skin. These may have a broad range ofimpacts, from tissue repair and cancer prevention tosparking immune disorders.It is remarkable that it is so common for cells from oneindividual to integrate into the tissues of another distinctperson. We are accustomed to thinking of ourselves assingular autonomous individuals, and these foreign cellsseem to belie that notion, and suggest that most peoplecarry remnants of other individuals.As remarkable as this may be, stunning results from anew study show that cells from other individuals are alsofound in the brain. In this study, male cells were found inthe brains of women and had been living there, in somecases, for several decades. What impact they may havehad is now only a guess, but this study revealed thatthese cells were less common in the brains of womenwho had Alzheimer’s disease, suggesting they may berelated to the health of the brain.We all consider our bodies to be our own unique being,so the notion that we may harbour cells from otherpeople in our bodies seems strange. Even stranger is thethought that, although we certainly consider our actionsand decisions as originating in the activity of our ownindividual brains, cells from other individuals are livingand functioning in that complex structure. However, themixing of cells from genetically distinct individuals is notat all uncommon. This condition is called chimerism afterthe fire-breathing Chimera from Greek mythology, acreature that was part serpent part lion and part goat.Naturally occurring chimeras are far less ominousthough, and include such creatures as the slime mouldand corals.January 2013 12Serial No 15
Microchimerism is the persistent presence of a fewgenetically distinct cells in an organism. This was firstnoticed in humans many years ago when cells containingthe male “Y” chromosome were found circulating in theblood of women after pregnancy. Since these cells aregenetically male, they could not have been the women’sown, but most likely came from their babies duringgestation.In this new study, scientists observed that microchimericcells are not only found circulating in the blood, they arealso embedded in the brain. They examined the brains ofdeceased women for the presence of cells containing themale “Y” chromosome. They found such cells in morethan 60 percent of the brains and in multiple brainregions. Since Alzheimer’s disease is more common inwomen who have had multiple pregnancies, theysuspected that the number of fetal cells would be greaterin women with AD compared to those who had noevidence for neurological disease. The results wereprecisely the opposite: there were fewer fetal-derivedcells in women with Alzheimer’s. The reasons areunclear.Microchimerism most commonly results from theexchange of cells across the placenta during pregnancy;however there is also evidence that cells may betransferred from mother to infant through nursing. Inaddition to exchange between mother and fetus, theremay be exchange of cells between twins in utero, andthere is also the possibility that cells from an older siblingresiding in the mother may find their way back across theplacenta to a younger sibling during the latter’sgestation. Women may have microchimeric cells bothfrom their mother as well as from their own pregnancies,and there is even evidence for competition between cellsfrom grandmother and infant within the mother.What it is that fetal microchimeric cells do in themother’s body is unclear, although there are someintriguing possibilities. For example, fetal microchimericcells are similar to stem cells in that they are able tobecome a variety of different tissues and may aid intissue repair. One research group investigating thispossibility followed the activity of fetal microchimericcells in a mother rat after the maternal heart wasinjured: they discovered that the fetal cells migrated tothe maternal heart and differentiated into heart cellshelping to repair the damage. In animal studies,microchimeric cells were found in maternal brains wherethey became nerve cells, suggesting they might befunctionally integrated in the brain. It is possible that thesame may true of such cells in the human brain.These microchimeric cells may also influence theimmune system. A fetal microchimeric cell from apregnancy is recognized by the mother’s immune systempartly as belonging to the mother, since the fetus isgenetically half identical to the mother, but partlyforeign, due to the father’s genetic contribution. Thismay “prime” the immune system to be alert for cells thatare similar to the self, but with some genetic differences.Cancer cells that arise due to genetic mutations are justsuch cells, and there are studies that suggest thatmicrochimeric cells may stimulate the immune system tostem the growth of tumors. Many more microchimericcells are found in the blood of healthy women comparedto those with breast cancer, for example, suggesting thatmicrochimeric cells can somehow prevent tumorformation. In other circumstances, the immune systemturns against the self, causing significant damage.Microchimerism is more common in patients sufferingfrom Multiple Sclerosis than in their healthy siblings,suggesting chimeric cells may have a detrimental role inthis disease, perhaps by setting off an autoimmuneattack.This is a burgeoning new field of inquiry withtremendous potential for novel findings as well as forpractical applications. But it is also a reminder of ourinterconnectedness.Ref: Chan W.F et al: Male microchimerism in the humanfemale brain. PLoS One. 2012; 7(9): e45592.Neural Networking:Your Brain's Internal Connections OperateLike a Country ClubConsciousness and healthy brain function appear toemerge not from neurons, but from the networks linkingthem together. Scientists are only just beginning to mapthat complex network and understand how it works.Whereas previous studies have shown that some regionsof the human brain have more connections than others,until now no one has known exactly how those "hubs”interact.A new study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience,used MRI scans to map brain activity in 21 people. Theyfound that the areas with the most connections—thehubs—were more strongly connected to one anotherthan to other, less popular regions.The researchers liken the favoured networks to a countryclub setting, in which people with a great number ofsocial connections bond with other connection-richsocialites. In the brain, the socialites (the hubs with themost connections, shown in red in the image) includedthe regions that aggregate and process many kinds ofinformation—the superior frontal and superior parietalcortex, for example, as well as thesubcortical hippocampus, putamen and thalamus.January 2013 13Serial No 15
Page 1: Bio-Balance NewsletterBio-Balance H
Page 4 and 5: oxidative stress;toxic overload;glu
Page 6 and 7: The Teen Brain:Primed to Learn, Pri
Page 8 and 9: communication by comparing regions
Page 10 and 11: motivation, and controlling sociall
Page 14 and 15: NATURE JOURNAL - News Specials & Ou
Page 16 and 17: The "Wellness Model" of health atte
Page 18 and 19: Can a gut bacteria imbalancereally
Page 20 and 21: psychiatric disorder, and prospecti
Page 22 and 23: 10% have this illnessbut most don

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