Comments on: Mothers, Children, and Genes in Conflict

By: erika

erika — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 18:44:08 +0000

hola soy de argentina mi sorina tiene el sindrome prader willi.Se lo dectaron al mes ahora tiene 3 a

By: Anna, nurse

Anna, nurse — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 20:34:17 +0000

Nutrition is very important not only for babys but for mothers as well. http://www.ambustat.com

By: Luis

Luis — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 03:01:26 +0000

Wow, very interesting. One thing is bugging me though…
Carl: “As I explain in the article, Haig first wrote about his theory in the early 1990s.”
Is it REALLY a theory? I mean, this IS a science blog, and you DO focus on evolution, so shouldn’t that say “hypothesis” instead of “theory”? This is the kind of thing that makes creationists so annoying with their “it’s just a theory” arguments.

Yeah, I’m a nitpicker.

By: mj quinn

mj quinn — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 11:45:05 +0000

Genetic views of pre-eclampsia have been dented recently by epidemiological studies that suggest that the “change of partner” or “dangerous male” effect disappears with prolonged inter-pregnancy intervals. The Haig hypothesis is very interesting though there may be simple neurological mechanisms that connect intrauterine growth problems, maternal pre-eclampsia, and elevated cytokines (sFlt-1). Injuries to nerve plexi at the endometrial-myometrial interface (through straining, surgery, prolonged pushing in labour) may cause unsuccessful or poor implantation resulting in some features of the spectrum of reproductive loss that we elaborate as miscarriage, pre-eclampsia, IUGR, placenta accreta. A neural loop between the uterus and the kidney may account for the (in)ability of the mother to divert her blood flow. Similar denervation and cytokine elevations have been noted recently in the three benign gynaecological pathologies of endometriosis, adenomyosis and fibroids also associated with neural injuries (a nerve re-grows when it is divided in a soup of cytokines, growth factors, etc – reinnervation causes pain or discomfort in response to light touch – allodynia)

Reinnervation may account for much pelvic pain, endometriosis, menorrhagia and all the other Greek words with which we confuse ourselves and our patients as benign gynaecology. That first labours may cause much of gynaecology was first suggested in 1955 by Willard Allen and Howard Masters of Kansas. Allen became chairman in New York and a Nobel Laureate; Masters was the first half of Masters and Johnson. The denervation-reinnervation view is a development of their earlier work.

The idea that much of what happens to a woman in her first labour, unleashes her pelvic nerves against her which may cause cycles of denervation and reinnervation for the rest of her life (labour-denervation, pelvic pain-reinnervation, hysterectomy-denervation, postmenopausal pain/prolapse-reinnervation) is uncomfortable for many except perhaps the woman herself – and the legal profession ?

By: Genetics and Health

Genetics and Health — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 10:14:45 +0000

Genes in Conflict

Carl Zimmer at The Loom has a fascinating piece in The New York Times this week about the phenomenon of genomic imprinting, a process by which either the mother’s or the father’s variant of the gene is silenced, and its influence on fetal …

By: luca

luca — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 13:31:34 +0000

Thanks Carl,

I’ll have a look at it…

and my compliment for the site, I guess ‘Evolution’ will be pretty high in my Xmas wish list. for the time being, I’ll grab Parasite Rex – any relation with the parasite documentary series the BBC showed some years ago?

By: Saxa82

Saxa82 — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 21:53:31 +0000

Mr. Zimmer,

I read your NYT article, as well your your Loom post, with great interest. Some questions: When exactly does genomic imprinting happen- upon fertilization or later? Is this a random event, or are there factors that might predispose a gene to being turned off? And, of course, what is the evolutionary value of gene imprinting? Sorry for all the questions, this is a curious topic.

Saxa82

By: Judith

Judith — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 16:05:37 +0000

Oops, it’s the fourth sentence. They’ll take my niggling badge away…

By: Judith

Judith — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:35:39 +0000

Carl, this is a bit steep for some of us, so help me out, please. In the third sentence of the first paragraph there are one or two words missing which might help set me on the right path.

signed
The Niggler

By: Carl Zimmer

Carl Zimmer — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 14:08:58 +0000

Luca-- You can read the full Prader-Willi paper here: http://www.oeb.harvard.edu/faculty/haig/pdfs/03PraderWilli.pdf Anthropological data indicates children are weaned by their third birthday in foraging societies. The P-W increase in appepite kicks in around then.

By: luca

luca — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 13:28:43 +0000

Carl, interesting article, but have to admit I’m quite confused by the timing of the first sindrome (Prader-Willi) you talk about: you says that the children’s behaviour is initially ‘disinterest’ in food, then at age three ossessive interest. soon after, you suggest that the conflict develops around weaning… are american children weaned at age of three?