The ancient Greeks believed in the existence of monsters with a lion's head, a goat's body, and a snake's tail. They called them chimeras. Genetic research suggests that some people's cells contain two variants of DNA. That is, in this case, there are two genetically different people in one body.
Mysterious tests
Scientists call such phenomena "modern chimeras". Sometimes research into this phenomenon takes on a scandalous connotation, attracts close press attention and even has a direct impact on court decisions.
This is exactly what happened to a resident of American Boston, Lydia Fairchild. The woman turned to the state authorities for financial assistance. In her statement, she wrote: “I am raising two minor children alone and found myself in a very difficult financial situation. I do not have enough funds to pay for the rented apartment and buy my son and daughter at least the most necessary things!"
Suspicious officials demanded that Lydia conduct a DNA test, which will confirm that the children are really hers. However, the unexpected happened: twice a DNA test showed that the children were not her own. The prosecutor suspected Lydia of fraud and brought the appropriate charge. In an interview with The Boston Globe, he stated: “The facts are that Mrs. Fairchild tried to get money from the state without any real reason. We must stand guard over taxpayers' funds and have no right to finance anyone else's scams!"
The lonely mother was helped by lawyer Alan Tyndall, who presented the meticulous prosecutor with an article from a reputable scientific journal, which told the recent story of another American woman, Karen Keegan. During the divorce proceedings with her husband, Karen underwent a genetic test, which also showed that there was no genetic relationship with her two children. Keegan was not satisfied with this fact, she went to a private clinic, where she underwent several more tests and thorough examinations, as a result of which an amazing fact emerged: during the period of intrauterine development, Karen merged into a single whole with her twin. Therefore, she has two DNA lines. Doctors diagnosed her with chimerism.
It turned out that a similar case happened with Lydia (which was established after a thorough examination). As a result, all charges were dropped from her, and she was able to receive financial assistance from the authorities of her home state.
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Complete imbalance
Popular American model and singer Taylor Muhl was another revealed chimera. For the first time, her parents drew attention to the oddities of their daughter as early as infancy - a strange dividing strip was located along the girl's body through the navel, across the belly and chest. The color of the skin on different sides of this stripe was different, on one it was almost white, and on the other it was reddish.
The doctors reassured the parents, believing that such a phenomenon was just a variant of an extensive mole, but with age, Taylor's health began to deteriorate.
The examination showed that the girl developed serious autoimmune problems. Her body began to attack itself. As a result, the nervous system suffered severely. Taylor increasingly plunged into melancholy, then fell into hysterics, digestion went wrong, and blood sugar levels increased. The doctors suggested that in this case, again at an early stage of pregnancy, the genes of her undeveloped twin entered Taylor's body, and she became the carrier of two genetic sets. The doctors also diagnosed her with chimerism.
Geneticist Harry Jones compared this case with the formation of a twin parasite growing from a person's chest or back (such abnormalities were observed by doctors). However, with chimerism, such physical anomalies do not arise, but inside the body of the chimera, anomalies arise and grow at the cellular level.
As a result, a chimera man begins to feel bad because his immune system is constantly attacking "foreign" cells - the cells of his unformed and unborn twin.
Such an imbalance leads to poor health, frequent allergic manifestations, as well as a violation of blood counts, which are revealed by medical tests.
Diagnoses and career
Due to frequent ailments, Taylor Muehl is forced to constantly take drugs that suppress her immune system, as well as a set of vitamins, and also follow a special diet, do massage, exercise and often attend psychotherapist sessions to deal with stress, who teaches Taylor to overcome her conditions and do not be ashamed of your body. But even with this complex of medical services, Taylor still often feels unwell.
The situation is aggravated by the fact that she is a talented and highly promoted singer and model, and therefore her career directly depends on her appearance and health. In her blog, which has millions of subscribers, as well as on the covers of glossy publications, she should look healthy, well-groomed, smiling and optimistic. This is the image that Americans like. Taylor is struggling with her fortunes to create the impression of a prosperous person and not lose both advertisers and a large army of fans. Fortunately, it succeeds, and Taylor's career curve is steadily upward.
In the meantime, the study of cases of chimerism continues. In total, over a hundred cases of such diagnoses in humans have been recorded in the world. This phenomenon can be expressed in uneven skin pigmentation or eyes of different colors in one person.
American geneticists believe that chimeras are partial - in the case when the mother's DNA is partially transferred to the embryo (then only some human organs have a double set of DNA), and complete - as in the case of Karen and Lydia. In the bodies of such chimeras, there are two sets of genetic information. Interestingly, cases of chimerism are more common in women than in men. Scientists still find it difficult to explain this fact.
Successful compatibility
Scientists still have to unravel many mysterious phenomena of chimera organisms. However, it is already known that genetic chimerism can occur as a result of medical intervention, when a patient is transplanted with bone marrow, kidney, heart, lungs or other organs. A patient undergoing such an operation is forced to take drugs for the rest of his life that suppress his own immune system in order to prevent the rejection of the transplanted organs. Statistics show that with the right medication, such patients live a full life for many years.
Doctors also recorded cases of chimerism of the mother and the fetus. During pregnancy, it happened that through the placenta, fetal cells entered the mother's circulatory system. Precedents were recorded when fetal immune cells helped the mother to fight the oncology that had arisen and even successfully defeated the most dangerous disease. This process can act in two directions, and therefore the fetus can also receive from the mother some of the cells that help him - if necessary - to cope with some ailments.
Quite rarely, there are cases of chimerism of fraternal twins, which may have different heredities and blood types. As a result, such twins may develop a kind of "addiction" to the blood type of their brother (or sister). It was noted that in the future the immune system of such an individual will not reject the blood group, which, it would seem, should be rejected during transfusion. For example, a person with a negative Rh factor will not respond to a positive Rh factor, and he / she will not experience blood transfusion shock.
Chikatilo - a chimera?
The tetragametic type of chimerism remains the least studied, when at an early stage of development two fertilized eggs or two embryos merge into one organism.
Scientists believe that there may actually be much more such cases (in addition to the dozen recorded). It is not so easy to just fix that cells of one organism can contain several variants of DNA. This requires careful research. People who do not experience health problems and do not go to doctors can live for a long time without assuming that they actually have sets of different genes.
In this regard, an example of the notorious maniac Chikatilo is characteristic, on whose conscience dozens of tortured and murdered victims are. Criminologists believe that Chikatilo had a genetic chimerism. This is proved by the fact that the samples of his seminal fluid did not genetically coincide with his own blood samples, which made it difficult for investigators to try to expose the culprit. Fortunately for society, they fully succeeded, and the series of bloody crimes was interrupted.
According to researcher Erin Martin, the first human chimera described by scientists was 33-year-old British woman Ellis McKay. When she decided to donate in January 1953, doctors were perplexed when determining her blood type. It turned out that the samples taken from the lady contained cells of two different groups at once. The mystery was solved by hematologist Robert Race. He suggested that Ellis had a twin brother, and his blood entered the girl's circulatory system during the prenatal period. McKay confirmed that there was indeed a twin brother, and he died at the age of three.
Geneticists believe that as the research base improves, such a unique phenomenon as chimerism will have less and less mysteries.