Woman learns she's actually twins who fused in the womb

[dutchdemocrat]

Sons I gave birth to are 'unrelated' to me
By Roger Highfield

One human chimera came to light when a 52-year-old woman demanded an explanation from doctors after tests showed that two of her three grown-up sons were biologically unrelated to her.

Although the woman, "Jane", conceived them naturally with her husband, tests to see if she could donate a kidney suggested that somehow she had given birth to somebody else's children.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine by Dr Margot Kruskall, of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre in Boston, Massachusetts, showed that Jane is a chimera, a mixture of two individuals - non-identical twin sisters - whose cells intermingled in the womb and grew into a single body.

Dr Kruskall believes the most likely explanation is that Jane's mother conceived non-identical twin girls, who fused at an early stage of the pregnancy to form a single embryo, according to a report published today in New Scientist.

SNIP

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/11/13/nivf113.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/11/13/ixhome.html

[jiacinto]

1. interesting

ntr

[Shakespeare]

2. Conjoined fetus lady!

Just like on South Park! :D

[jenk]

3. weird

what is she like a person within a person?????

[Zuni]

4. That is really weird

It must be really, really creepy for her.

[LincolnMcGrath]

5. Identity theft nightmare

??Who really has the SSN? Drivers license? Credit Cards?HHHMMMM

[Bunny]

6. Wow!

Interesting, and freaky. I've never heard of this.

[Cooley Hurd]

7. "I have dis lump in my neck..."

...the BEST scene from "My Big, Fat, Greek Wedding" was Andrea Martin's soliloquy, about how they found "a spine and some teeth" in her "lump."

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Scene stealer.

I never laughed so hard. Okay, I did laugh as hard the first time I saw Porkys.

[pansypoo53219]

9. actually a common tumor

mom is a med records person specializing in cancer. and while very freaky, it happens all the time.
but still GROSS.

[bleedingheart]

14. it reminded me of so many people in my family

I laughed so hard I cried...

[roguevalley]

10. Calling Jean-Luc Picard! STAT!

[geniph]

11. Chimeras are interesting

I've met a feline chimera, Solkatz Pretty Boy Floid, the red white and blue cat. He's a very nice cat, and has sired many handsome kittens, none of which exhibit his particular genetic anomaly.

Here's an interesting excerpt from a paper which includes a section on feline chimeras:

If an XY egg fuses with an XX egg (a male embryo fuses with a female embryo), it gives a XX/XY chimaera containing some tissues/organs which are genetically female and other tissues which are genetically male. In an XX/XY chimaera, X chromosome inactivtion will occur. The 3 X chromosomes in the animal may contain an assortment of different colour genes (especially if the mother mated several times and the eggs were fertilized by different fathers). The physical appearance and the sexual behaviour of an XX/XY chimaera depends on which structures contain which chromosomes. A good example of this is the now famous Maine Coon Solkatz Pretty Boy Floid who is a mix of red, grey and white - a colour combination impossible in a normal XY male.

Until recently it was believed that chimaeras were normally only produced in the laboratory and usually involved chimaeras made from different, but closely related, species. The geep is an interspecies chimaera mixing a sheep and a goat. Unlike a sheep/goat hybrid, the sheep/goat chimaera did not look like something halfway between the two species. The sheep and goat tissues retained their individual appearance, creating an animal with hairy goat-like legs and a woolly sheep-like body. Rat/mouse chimaeras have also been made. Increasing use of genetic tests on anomalous animals (e.g. those with genetically impossible colours, ambiguous gender) is revealing a surprising number of natural chimeras in the cat population and may account for more tortoiseshell males than previously thought. For example, chimerism is found in cattle. When a cow has twins, they almost always share a circulatory system. Blood stem cells from one embryo end up in the other embryo and both twins end up as chimaeras (microchimaeras).

Possibly the most famous tortoiseshell male cat is Solkatz Pretty Boy Floid, a pedigree Maine Coon, born Nov 1996 in Bremerton, Washington, USA. Floid is a triple genetic anomaly: calico male, mixed dilute and non-dilute colours and fertile! Floid was initially thought to be a dilute calico male (blue, cream and white) which in itself is unusual enough. However, the cream portions of his coat turned out to be red i.e a non-dilute colour. This is also very unusual as the dilution gene which gave him the blue (grey) colour should have converted all red portions into cream. Finally, Floid is fertile. Floid is a chimaera - the result of two fertilized eggs merging into a single embryo. On a genetic level, different portions of his coat (of his whole body in fact) actually belong to different cats. Although a very nice Maine Coon and the sire of some excellent offspring (none of which are dilute, therefore his testicular tissue is from non-dilute-carrying cells which also formed the red patches), Floid himself was unable to win titles because there are not colour classes for tortoiseshell male cats.

the rest of the paper is here:
http://www.messybeast.com/mosaicism.htm

[lostnfound]

18. And an extra good reason why anti-gay attitudes are just WRONG

I remember discussing hermaphrodites with a coworker who is generally fundamentalist -- I told her, if she thinks the law should forbid same-sex relationships, then who should hermaphrodites allowed to be with?
A NOVA program ('boy or girl?', I think it was called) discussed them at length, and I believe there are cases of xx/xy chimeras in humans.

[dutchdemocrat]

12. European fertility specialists denounce creation of human chimera embryo

Anybody want to chip in a nickname for Dr. Norbert Gleicher? Wonder if Poindexter had him on the payroll. Somehow I can see these two rolled into one... no pun intended of course.

-----------

European fertility specialists denounce creation of human chimera embryo

By EMMA ROSS



MADRID (AP) - Europe's leading society of fertility specialists Wednesday denounced research intended to create human chimeras - children made by mixing the cells of two different embryos.

The statement by the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology was issued in response to an American scientist's report at the society's annual meeting that he has merged a cell from a male embryo with a female embryo and grew the hybrid in a lab for six days before destroying it.

Norbert Gleicher of the Centers for Human Reproduction in Chicago and New York said he had proven that the technique can be achieved in humans. He also said he envisions one day using it to create babies for couples who were certain to pass on single-gene disorders.

SNIP

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Science/2003/07/02/125410-ap.html


EDITED BY ADMIN FOR COPYRIGHT REASONS

[onebigbadwulf]

13. NPR did a report on this

all the more reason to stop believing in the absurdity of souls and creationist views on life

[Rhiannon12866]

15. WOW! This is REALLY creepy!!!

:scared:

[dutchdemocrat]

16. Meet Oliver, the Chimp-Human Chimera also known as the Humanzee.

Just when you think it was creepier. It gets even creepier.

Meet Oliver, the Chimp-Human Chimera also known as the Humanzee.

-----------------------


The chimp who is almost human
By Eri Akbar

PETS can be human-like sometimes.

You go 'awww' when your sweet kitten snuggles up to you after a long day at work or when it nibbles on that oily chicken wing on your plate.

But how would you feel about a chimpanzee that looks more human than its own species, walks on two feet and even smokes a cigar?

Would the creature be a curious miracle or a freak of nature? Either way, it gave me goosebumps.

The protagonist in Humanzee - an Animal Planet documentary - is Oliver, a chimpanzee with an uncanny resemblance to humans. (After this, you will watch Planet Of The Apes with a new perspective.)

Discovered in African jungles in the '60s, Oliver is less hairy around its face, has a pointed set of ears and a hip structure that allows it to walk upright.

It was adopted by a chimp-loving family and is said to get along better with people than most animals.

Unfortunately, the family had to give Oliver up when it started making amorous advances towards its lady caretaker.

A pity the documentary doesn't play up on Oliver's character and behaviour. Instead, it focuses on the scientific aspects.

It's perfectly natural to suspect Oliver to be a hybrid of a chimp and - shudder - a human being. Find out what the scientists have to say about this in the show.

SNIP

http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/hey/story/0,4136,40101-1067788740,00.html

[Lars39]

17. I remember seeing a part of a program about this.

I didn't realize Oliver was still alive, though. There were clips of him walking around, definitely walking like a human for very long lengths of time. His face didn't look like a normal chimps, either.
One of those shows that make you go, hmmmm.

[Ellen Forradalom]

19. What implications are there for DNA evidence?

DNA evidence is nowadays the gold standard as proof of identity. But how does the possibility of human chimeras affect this? I would assume chimeras are so rare as to not affect DNA's status as the most reliable means of establishing identity.

[UrbScotty]

20. Oooooooooooooo-kay.

Dang!