PKD Births
A choice can now be made. Beyond
the Double Helix
Since Watson and Crick discovered DNA's double helix structure
in 1953, scientists have realized the double helix is only one part
of our genetic makeup, the latest portrait of our basing building
blocks.
Changing the Portrait of DNA
Every day, it seems, scientists learn something new about how our genes work. The latest insights into the dazzling and complex machinery of life itself. An observation about a mouse experiment that promotes inherited mutant genes from fully expressing themselves by pre-conception eating of a diet high in folate, can help families who wish children. High folate foods are leafy greens and plant based proteins. Good news is a second researcher at Duke University in North Carolina is Randy Jirtle has contributed to this discovery.
"Four years ago, a Duke University biologist named Randy Jirtle began an elegant little experiment
that would ultimately lead him to confront one of life's biggest
mysteries. He started with two groups of mice that gave birth to sets of identical babies carrying
the same genes. The babies were raised the same way from birth.
They should have looked alike but instead, they barely looked related. In the first group, the babies
were overweight, prone to diabetes and cancer and covered in
fur the color of rancid butter. The mice in the second group were beautiful: lean, healthy, brown.
Same nature, same nurture, radically different outcomes.
What was going on?"
"The difference, it turned out, wasn't due to the mice's genetic code, nor was it
due to the environment. It lay instead in a mechanism that was mediating between the two.
A gene in the sickly yellow babies was making a disease- causing protein called Agouti,
which also affects coat color. The brown babies had the same gene, but it wasn't
making much of anything. It had mostly stopped working. The brown babies' mothers h
ad eaten a special diet during pregnancy: one rich in folic acid, which floods the body
with tiny four-atom configurations called methyl groups. These methyl groups had
infiltrated the growing brown mouse embryos and latched onto the flawed gene, shutting it down.
This was the solution to the mystery."
2nd Hit
This reminds me of a lecture I heard long long ago from Dr. Greg Germino concerning the second hit phenomenon and PKD. I heeded his advice and avoided anything in the environment that may harm my DNA. More about the second hit and PKD is here.Vitamin B and Pregnancy
B vitamins might be good for before one is pregnant as well. B3 holds promise for treating PKD.Andrei Sommer uses Light in his Research
"One of the next applications could be in helping couples undergoing
IVF because of problems with male fertility. Some men?s sperm do not have
enough energy to fertilize an egg in a lab, even though they only have to
swim 1 millimeter to reach it, says IVF doctor Friedrich Gagsteiger
of the Fertility Centre in Ulm."
"Gagsteiger is now starting tests of irradiating sperm with the near-infrared light
before fertilization. We hope this will increase the chance of the sperm finding the eggs."
The complete medical article is available for your review.
