Cells in the amniotic fluid that surrounds a developing baby can revive ageing and weak bones, say UK scientists.
The discovery could help babies with genetic diseases, elderly people and even astronauts, they say.
The findings in mice, published in Scientific Reports, showed cells in the fluid strengthened bone and cut fractures by 80%.
Human clinical trials are planned within the next two years.
Brittle bones
The amniotic fluid protects the baby and helps it develop inside the mother's womb.
It also contains stem cells that are the building blocks of other tissues.
The researchers collected the amniotic stem cells from material left over from screening tests during pregnancy or collected immediately before birth.
The team at the Institute of Child Health - a collaboration of Great Ormond Street Hospital and University College London - injected the cells into diseased mice.
The animals had brittle bone disease or osteogenesis imperfecta.
In people, the condition affects around one in every 25,000 births and can be fatal, with babies born with multiple fractures.
Even those who survive face up to 15 bone fractures a year, brittle teeth, impaired hearing and growth problems.
Tests on mice showed injecting the cells increased the strength, plasticity and structure of the animal's bones.
The number of fractures was cut to a fifth of their original level.
New bones
Dr Pascale Guillot, who conducted the research, said the findings could help people from crib to grave - from babies with brittle bone disease to pensioners with osteoporosis.
She told the BBC News website: "I am extremely excited because this is a major breakthrough that will potentially affect everyone.
"We are already used to putting cream on our face to slow down ageing of the skin, this will be the same for the skeleton.
"I think in the next few years we will have ways to slow down the ageing of our skeleton to reduce fractures and pain.
"This will also be very important for space travel as when you don't have G-force the bones become fragile."
Bone is constantly being remade with cells called osteoclasts breaking down old bone and osteoblasts making new bones.
Dr Guillot said brittle bone disease, osteoporosis and space travel were all characterised by osteoblasts "becoming lazy".
The study showed the stem cells were increasing the natural activity of the osteoblasts - rather than directly making new bone themselves.
"Stem cell transplants boost these lazy cells so they become very eager to make more bone and mature bone," added Dr Guillot.
Clinical trials are already planned, but ultimately the researchers' aim is to discover which chemicals the stem cells are releasing that kick the osteoblasts into gear.
Pregnancy reduces grey matter in specific parts of a woman's brain, helping her bond with her baby and prepare for the demands of motherhood.
Scans of 25 first-time mums showed these structural brain chang
es lasted for at least two years after giving birth.
European researchers said the scale of brain changes during pregnancy were akin to those seen during adolescence.
But they found no evidence of women's memory deteriorating.
Many women have said they feel forgetful and emotional during pregnancy and put it down to "pregnancy" or "baby" brain - and, it seems, with good reason.
Hormone surge
Pregnancy is characterised by extreme surges of sex hormones and involves drastic physiological and physical changes in the body, the researchers say.
During those nine months, women experience a flood of oestrogen which is greater than for the whole of the rest of their lives.
Yet research on the effects of pregnancy on the human brain is scarce.
This study, from researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona and Leiden University and published in Nature Neuroscience, looked at the brain scans of women before they became pregnant, soon after they gave birth, and two years later, to see how the brain changed.
And they compared these women's brains with those of 19 first-time fathers, 17 men without children and 20 women who had never given birth.
The researchers found "substantial" reductions in the volume of grey matter in the brains of first-time mothers.
The grey matter changes occurred in areas of the brain involved in social interactions used for attributing thoughts and feelings to other people - known as "theory-of-mind" tasks.
The researchers thought this would give new mothers an advantage in various ways - help them recognise the needs of their child, be more aware of potential social threats and become more attached to their baby.
Just by analysing the brain images, computers were able to pick out the women who had been pregnant.
Bonding with baby
In one task, women were shown pictures of their own babies and other babies and their brain activity was monitored.
The parts of the brain which lit up when they saw pictures of their own babies closely matched the areas where grey matter had been reduced or "fine-tuned" during pregnancy.
The same areas did not light up when pictures of other babies were viewed.
Elseline Hoekzema, study author and postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Psychology at Leiden University in the Netherlands, said: "We can speculate that the volume reductions observed in pregnancy represent a process of specialisation or further maturation of this Theory of Mind network that, in some way, serves an adaptive purpose for pending motherhood."
The study found that pregnant women were all affected in similar ways, regardless of whether they conceived naturally or underwent IVF.
And there were no changes in first-time fathers' grey matter in the study when their brains were monitored before and after their partners' pregnancy.
The research team also found no major changes in white matter in the brain.
Julie Bradford, 45, offered her womb to her daughter Jess after she was left infertile by ovarian cancer at the age of just 18, and she says “any mother would do this for their child”
Devoted mum Julie Bradford has admitted nothing was going to stop her having a surrogate baby for her cancer-stricken daughter.
The hairdresser, 45, bravely stood in for Jessica Jenkins, 21, after she was told she would never be able to have children.
Devastated Jessica opted to have her eggs frozen after becoming one of the youngest women in Britain to be diagnosed with cervicalcancerwhen she was just 18.
Now, three years later, Julie has given birth to her baby grandson Jack.
Speaking to the Daily Mirror, proud Julie said: “Any mother would do this for their child. It was never in question from day one. He’s a Christmas miracle to us.
“You watch your daughter go through cancer at 18 and then say you would not do the same. But I would have done it anyway, it’s what mums do.
“If cancer couldn’t beat us there was no way I wasn’t having a baby for Jessica.”
And delighted Jessica said: “I cannot believe I’ve gone from facing death with cancer to facing my first Christmas with my son in just a few years.
“It just shows you how, no matter what life throws at you, you should never give up, because anything is possible.”
Jack — born last Friday at a healthy 6lb 10oz — may not have arrived if it was not for the quick thinking of doctors.
Jessica, of Rhymney, South Wales, had her eggs harvested on the day she started radiotherapy. She said: “The depth of despair was not getting cancer, you can beat cancer, the true depth was being told point blank I’d never have kids.
“But the doctors were brilliant, it usually takes at least four weeks to harvest eggs for IVF but they managed to do it in two.
“I had my eggs harvested in the morning, and started radiotherapy that afternoon.
“It was the last possible moment I could have started treatment. But it was such an immense feeling of relief to know that no matter what happened, I had done that because I had always longed to be a mum and couldn’t bear that being taken away.”
Jessica’s husband Rees Jenkins, 27, said being told the couple could never have children was a massive blow.
The machine setter fought back tears as he revealed: “The cancer I could deal with, it was horrible, but you knew there was hope. I’d never cried in front of Jess until the day she told me she could never have kids. We just sat in the car and bawled our eyes out.
“She said I should leave her, go my own way, I don’t think I’ve ever loved her more then I did in that moment.”
Much to the couple’s relief, Jessica soon battled back from cancer and has been in remission since October 2014.
And as soon as she got the all-clear, her devoted mum Julie stepped in to give her what she wanted most — a child.
Doctors had managed to take 21 eggs but only 10 had survived by the time they chose to go ahead with the IVF treatment earlier this year.
But despite her age and already having three children of her own, Julie said there was never any doubt she would help.
The mum, who went through the menopause at 38, continued: “We couldn’t control the cancer but we could control this so it was my way of taking control back for my daughter. I could do something incredible for Jessica and that’s what I was going to do, nothing was going to stop me.”
Incredibly, Julie learned she was pregnant on April 9 this year — two years to the day that Jessica was told she could never have children.
The pair have been inseparable ever since and talk lovingly of the moment Jessica felt Jack kick for the first time.
Wiping away tears, Jessica said: “We were hugging on the couch watching TV and Jack kicked me in the head. We both just cried our eyes out, it was the most amazing experience.
“My mum is my hero, she has shown me what true love means, I can never repay her for what she has done for us and the sacrifices she has made.”
The experience was not quite the same for Jack’s dad Rees.
He said: “I’ll admit at first it did freak me out that my son was being carried in my mum-in-law. I kept my distance respectfully a tiny little bit but as soon as she started showing, I thought I can’t keep my distance from this. It is the most amazing thing any person can do for another.
“Jess and her mum had a great relationship anyway but it’s only strengthened now.
“Seeing Jess and her mum crying with Jack in their arms will always be the greatest day of my life. I have not said thank you to Julie enough and I want her to know just how thankful I am, from the bottom of my heart.
“A few years ago I was in a cold medical room being informed Jess could die, then I was in a room welcoming our son into the world. It’s truly wonderful.”
Jessica was by her mother’s side throughout the three-and-a-half hour labour. Jessica said: “It was horrible watching my mum in pain, I felt really helpless but I held her hand and mopped her brow, she was truly incredible. The most incredible mum in the world.
Julie laughed: “I have had three so I did warn her what it would be like but I just got on with it.
“I had a bit of gas and air at the end but didn’t even touch a paracetamol.
“I was just so pleased to be able to bring my daughter’s child into the world, you don’t feel pain at times like that.”
Jessica also revealed she has not ruled out further children but will not ask Julie again. Instead she has her hopes set on pioneering womb transplant technology.
She said: “I couldn’t put mum through it again — I know they’re doing clinical trials on womb transplants in Switzerland — so the moment that comes over here I’m putting myself forward.”
And once again Julie has stepped in to help — by offering to donate her own womb for transplant.
Julie said: “I wouldn’t think twice. It’s clearly in working order isn’t.”
A 50 year-old Israeli couple have fought for the legal
system to authorise posthumous sperm retrieval from their son who died in a car
accident at the age of 25. They want to "give him the chance" to
father a child because he wanted "a family". "Keen to become
grandparents", they want to raise this child themselves.
In September, the Petah Tikva Family Court granted
permission to the family to raise the child to be conceived from their son's
sperm and purchased eggs. The family had decided to implant the eggs in the
uterus of a surrogate mother. However, despite the decision given in September,
the Court announced that the family should prepare for an appeal given the
unusual circumstances of the case brought by this couple who want to be both
parents and grandparents to their son's offspring. Pending a final decision,
the Court has placed an injunction on the couple, banning them from using their
deceased son’s sperm.
This case of posthumous sperm retrieval is the first
of its kind in Israel. Since 2003, Israeli law has authorised the retrieval of
posthumous sperm samples only for subsequent insemination or implantation by
in-vitro fertilisation or for the deceased person’s wife to be inseminated.
Some countries authorise posthumous sperm retrieval if the deceased has left
written authorisation to this effect. It is prohibited in
France, Germany and Sweden.
The Cambodian Ministry of Health has decided to ban recourse to surrogacy given the nationwide increase in this practice since surrogacy was banned in Thailand and India. Moreover, until now, the cost of surrogacy in Cambodia has been very low compared to the United States. In the absence of legislation, clinics accepted homosexual partners as well as single people.
Last week, the Cambodian Health Ministry sent a memo to clinics offering surrogacy services, stating the following: "There is a permanent ban on surrogacy", adding that, concerned about spin-offs, the government "is working towards legislation that will protect women and children from becoming objects of trafficking".
For Sam Everingham, founder of Families Through Surrogacy, an association dedicated to surrogacy, access to Cambodian surrogate mothers represented "an industry that has rapidly developed in a country that was not prepared to face up to facts, particularly in terms of medical services". He added that the decision taken by the Cambodian Government "will spread panic amongst the numerous intended parents... just as we saw in Thailand".
An Australian woman who was told she might never become pregnant says she has given birth to twins conceived 10 days apart.
Kate Hill was receiving hormone treatment for polycystic ovary syndrome, a condition that meant she was not ovulating.
She apparently conceived twins at different times d
espite only having unprotected sex once during that time.
It is very rare for a woman to conceive a second time when already pregnant.
Most twins are the result of a woman releasing two eggs at the same time, or, less commonly, a fertilised egg subsequently splitting into two.
The twin girls, Charlotte and Olivia, were born 10 months ago with different sizes, weights and gestational development, according to reports.
"We actually did not realise how special that was until they were born," Mrs Hill told Australia's Seven Network.
Pregnancy normally stops the monthly cycle of ovulation but very rarely a woman can release another egg after conceiving. If this is fertilised it could also implant and develop into a healthy pregnancy.
It is believed only 10 cases of the phenomenon, known as superfoetation, have been documented across the world.
Speaking about the rare conception, Mrs Hill's husband Peter joked: "Hole in one, maybe."
The couple's obstetrician Brad Armstrong said the condition was so rare he was forced to search for it online.
"I could not find any literature in the medical review websites at all," he said.
A protein circulating in the blood of pregnant women could be used to develop antenatal tests to determine the health of babies and predict the need for emergency care at birth, based on a study conducted by Queen Mary University London (QMUL).
The test conducted in mice and then in a cohort of 129 women, has shown that levels of the blood marker known as DLK1 are a good predictor of foetal growth and pregnancy-related complications. Scientists are considering using this marker as a non-invasive ante-natal screening tool but recommend further studies to consolidate their results.
Doctor Marika Charalambous who led the study explained that this discovery could identify the causes of a small-sized foetus, clarifying whether this is due to a nutrient deficiency in the uterus or simply genetic factors. This precise information will allow obstetricians to plan for any complications on delivery.
DLK1 is a protein that is found in large quantities in the mother's blood during pregnancy, in humans and rodents. However, its role has not yet been fully elucidated. The study - financed by the Medical Research Council and published in the Nature Genetics Journal - has shown that this protein comes from the embryo. Concentrations in maternal milk could give a direct indication of the biological condition of the embryo.
Moreover, DLK1 levels have proved to be good indicators of foetal weight with low DLK1 levels being linked to reduced foetal growth.
