posted
No medical emergency, just thinking about a modern Frankenstein story.
Blood is created in the bone marrow.
If you have a bone marrow transplant, does the new marrow make blood that carries your DNA or the DNA of the donor?
(you can see the CSI possibilities in this can't you. Joe dies. They know its Joe by the blood at the scene. But Joe had a marrow transplant a few years ago. Joe's alive, its the donor who's dead. )
If you have a kidney donated, the kidney retains its donor's dna even while it reproduces cells. Correct?
There is an old logic puzzle. After the big trip, Jason keeps the Argo's as a remembrance. But every year 10% of the boards are rotted, and are replaced. How long before the Argo is no longer the Argo, but a new ship?
If you had a drug that fought all transplant resistance, how many organs could you replace, each with there own DNA, before you were no longer you? Is the self just the brain? Is it more than that? This is where I see a 21st century Frankenstein story going.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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One of Patricia Cornwell's early works dealt with a similar problem... the perpetrator had had some sort of transplant that altered his DNA signature and caused problems for the forensics investigators.
Posts: 2069 | Registered: May 2001
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Yep, I would assume that from that point on, bone marrow is producing blood cells with the donor's dna, though only the white blood cells, since red blood cells don't have dna. Since bone marrow transplants are generally used in cases of blood cell cancers (aka leukemias and lymphomas), these transplants essentially set up a whole new immune system, utilizing the donor's genes. Self recognition is developed in the Thymus, so it's less important what dna is involved. This is obviously a very watered down explanation, but gives you the general idea.
Posts: 609 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Law and Order: SVU, CSI, and the original Law and Order have all had episodes dealing with bone marrow transplants and it confounding the evidence, IIRC. And maybe another procedural show too... I want to say CSI New York, but I'm not sure...
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