4 ms·
"There's no way they are in the womb (they wouldn't be able to get inside the uterus, and the immune system would attack them quite quickly if they did)." That
by pmalynin 12y ago
"There's no way they are in the womb (they wouldn't be able to get inside the uterus, and the immune system would attack them quite quickly if they did)." That is simply untrue [1,2,3,4, 5]. It has been recently discovered that many fetuses acquire their gut bacteria before parturition, it is logical to assume that the same can happened with these mites.
[1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3747743 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3747743
[2] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22647043 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22647043
[3] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18281199 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18281199
[4] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19018955 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19018955
[5] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18166321 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18166321
- boomlinde 12y agoBy your reasoning, I guess it would only be logical to assume that elephants can get in there too.
- ars 12y ago> it is logical to assume that the same can happened with these mites Bacteria are about 1/100 the size (1/1,000,000 the volume) of these mites. The mites can be seen by the naked eye (barely). How would the mite even get in? Much less breathe. Bacteria can get in the same way sperm do, mites are not able to swim through the fluid.
- pmalynin 12y agoFrankly my point was more about the immune system.
- ars 12y agoI didn't downmod you, I thought the point about bacteria was good. But you went rather too far in assuming what's true for bacteria is true for mites. Plus the immune system actively works with bacteria to cultivate specific species. So you should not extrapolate to all bacteria either.