The embryo that died in the womb was able to become a father in many years
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
In the United States, experts accidentally recorded a unique case of fertilization, when the father of a completely healthy baby was an embryo, which died in the early stages of pregnancy in the womb.
As it turned out, the father of a child (whose name is for obvious reasons not disclosed) was a twin brother. As a result of the rarest genetic phenomenon - human tetragament chimerism, when embryonic cells in the early stages of pregnancy merge, and the surviving embryo gets two sets of DNA - its and its deceased twin.
According to American experts this case was the first in history, scientists admit that such fertilization could have been earlier, but it was the American couple who became the first known in the scientific community.
Chimerism (a set of two DNAs in one person) is usually detected by chance, and scientists have so far not determined the frequency of occurrence of this phenomenon.
Last year, a married couple living in Washington turned to Stanford University for help from geneticists. Dr. Barry Starr found out that the couple had a boy who does not have a blood group with any of the parents, which usually means that the child is not a native. Because the conception occurred with the help of IVF in one of the well-known clinics, and not naturally, the young parents suspected that during the conception procedure the employees of the clinic mistakenly used someone else's biological material.
Specialists at Stanford University conducted a DNA test and stated that the biological father of the newborn is not a spouse at all. But the staff of the clinic of reproductive medicine were sure that mistakes during fertilization could not be and further investigation revealed an unusual fact of the origin of the baby.
After a detailed genetic test, which also includes the analysis of the genes of relatives, it was found that the husband is an uncle to the newborn, and the child has only 10% of the genes from him. This statement of scientists caused misunderstanding in the family, as the spouse had no brothers. Further research has shown that man is actually a chimera, i.e. Has two different genetic sets.
As a result, scientists accidentally discovered a unique case when the deceased embryo could become the father of a healthy baby.
Officially known about 40 cases of chimerism among people. Several cases of this genetic phenomenon were discovered by chance in IVF. For example, German specialists described a patient who had both a male and female chromosome set. Also, one of the cases of chimerism was revealed in Boston, when a woman needed kidney transplantation, but the sons of a woman, who had volunteered to become donors, were not her relatives at all.
In addition to genetic chimerism, blood is also isolated (when a person has 2 blood groups simultaneously) and biological (when a person has two skin colors at the same time - the pigmentation occurs as a mosaic, which is usually the case with incest of two races).