Re: Interesting Article on those who got RA after pregnancy!

[Guest guest]

Hello all, there was an interesting article printed in the Calgary newspaper

last week about RA and pregnancy. I found it very interesting, because i was

diagnozed with RA after i gave a birth to my first child.

 

Research links mothers' arthritis to unborn children

 By Watts, Postmedia News December 19, 2010

Janine Pigeon has had rheumatoid arthritis for half her life and was happy to

act as a research subject in a study of the disease. But she was stunned to

learn she may have inherited it from one of her sons.

" They know it's one of my boys, but they just won't tell me which one. So I

can't go and say, 'You little dickens, you,' " the 77-year-old mother of five

said at her apartment.

Pigeon was one of 13 women from Vancouver Island and their families who agreed

to become subjects to examine a phenomenon in which cells travel in both

directions across the placenta. A mother's cells will take up residence in a

developing child, while cells from the child will take up residence in the

mother. This residence can last for decades, even lifetimes and is known as

microchimerism.

Microchimerism is being linked to a number of autoimmune diseases, disorders in

which a body's protective mechanisms fight themselves -- such as rheumatoid

arthritis.

In the research, doctors dissected one of the characteristic nodules formed by

rheumatoid arthritis from Pigeon's knuckle. When the nodule was tested at the

Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, male DNA was found at its

centre. It was traced to one of Pigeon's sons.

This suggests foreign genetic material may have triggered the immune response

that triggered the disease.

The results of the research project have been presented at two international

science symposiums, in Kobe, Japan, and Atlanta, Ga.

Rheumatoid arthritis is chronic and incurable. It affects many tissues, but

principally attacks the joints, especially the fingers, wrists, shoulders, knees

and hips. As the tissue in the joint breaks down, it can lead to deformity and

severe physical handicaps.

It attacks three times more women than men and is characterized by the formation

of nodules under the skin, near affected joints.

" What I didn't realize until I got involved with this project is that my

practice is invaluable to the research community because of the relationships,

the social credit built up over years, " said rheumatologist Dr.

Atkins, the lead researcher.

Atkins's interest was sparked by a February 2008 article in Scientific American.

He contacted the writer, Dr. J. Lee , at the University of Washington.

Atkins suggested the idea of investigating rheumatoid arthritis nodules for

foreign cells.

, who also specialized in rheumatology, suggested the researchers

concentrate on looking for cells of sons in female patients.

That's not to suggest cells from a developing baby girl couldn't be passed to a

mother. But the presence of the single Y chromosome on a male cell can make it

much easier to find in the vast ocean of XX chromosome cells in a woman's body.

The next step for Atkins was to recruit a team of researchers in , all

of whom had to be willing to undertake the work for no money.

Dr. Naysmith, a plastic surgeon, agreed to perform surgeries to remove the

nodules. Dr. Nick van der Westhuizen, a pathologist and an associate with the

University of British Columbia, agreed to receive the nodules and prepare the

tissue for analysis.

Atkins also recruited Janet Woo, a former researcher with the BC Cancer Agency,

now living in , with whom he had worked in the past.

Woo's assistance proved crucial in forming the hypothesis suggesting proteins on

the surface of foreign invader cells may, somehow, trigger the auto-immune

response leading to rheumatoid arthritis.

Atkins and his colleagues worked for free, but the genetic analysis performed at

the Fred Hutchinson ran into tens of thousands of dollars.

It was the hypothesis, supported by solid data, that made for ultimate

scientific publishing success, Atkins said.

Meanwhile, 's study of microchimerism continues. She said it should be

noted that microchimerism may have a beneficial effect as well as causing

disease.

For example, statistics show women who have had children are less likely to

develop breast cancer.

" Like many things in biology they may have a good function and also the

potential, in certain circumstances, for being a problem, " said.

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