Women's Brains Contain Male DNA

According to Medical News Today, the brains of women often contain male DNA, which is most likely acquired from a pregnancy with a male fetus.  Scientists have yet to discover what male DNA and male cells in the brain indicate, but there has been research of other kinds of microchimerism showing a link between the phenomenon to autoimmune diseases and cancer.  Microchimerism is the existence of a small number of cells that emerge from another person, which in turn, makes them genetically different from the cells of the host.  Most commonly, during pregnancy, the genetic material and cells are exchanged between fetus and mother. This form is called fetomaternal microchimerism.  The discovery provides evidence for the probability that fetal cells often cross the human blood-brain barrier, while showing also that microchimerism in the brain is comparatively common.  Brain autopsy specimens from 59 females (26 had no neurological disease and 33 had Alzheimer's disease) who passed away between the ages of 32 and 101 were analyzed by the team.  The scientists detected male microchimerism in 63% of the women, which was spread across several regions of the brain.  A slightly lower prevalence of male microchimerism was seen in the patient's with Alzheimer's, which also appeared in lower concentrations in regions of their brains that were most influenced by the disease.  A link between Alzheimer's disease and the level of male cells of fetal origin can't yet be made, the researchers pointed out, because of the small number of women observed, and their history of pregnancy unknown.