Male DNA found for first time in female brains

Male DNA has for the first time been found inside the female brain, according to new research led by a Canadian scientist.

No, the finding doesn't explain why women sometimes know what their husbands are thinking.

But it could lead to refining what "the self," biologically speaking at least, really means.

Plus, in an unexpected finding, the researchers found that women with Alzheimer's disease had less male DNA in their brains -- and in lower concentrations in the brain region's most affected by the memory-robbing disease -- than women without Alzheimer's.

Observers said the finding also raises the hypothesis that, if male DNA can infiltrate a woman's brain, it might have some "masculinizing" affect on the female brain.

And, if that's so, "what consequences does this have on how the brain functions -- in other words, thinking and behaviour?" said neuroscientist Dr. Sandra Witelson, a professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at the Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Appearing in the latest edition of the journal, PLOS ONE, the study is the first to describe the presence of male "microchimerism" in women's brains.

Microchimerism is the "intermingling" of small numbers of cells or portions of DNA in a person or animal from a genetically different inpidual.

In this case, the male DNA found in women's brains most likely came from cells from a pregnancy with a baby boy.

But women can acquire male DNA without ever having a son. In women without boys, male DNA can come from sharing her mother's womb with a male twin, from a non-irradiated blood transfusion and possibly even from an older sibling.

See the original post here:
Male DNA found for first time in female brains