Morning sickness is a mystery. Why do more than two thirds of pregnant women vomit, especially in the first trimester? And why do some women, including Kate Middleton, Princess of Wales, espouse a much more radical version? Hyperemesis gravidarumWhat could be causing them to feel constantly nauseous and vomit most of their waking hours?
New research published in the journal Naturehas taken a step toward an explanation, and it involves a hormone called growth differentiation factor 15, or GDF15 for short.
To better understand this rather complex study, it is worth remembering the (possibly apocryphal) story of King Mithridates the Great, a hated enemy of the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries BC. BC
Mithridates apparently regularly took small amounts of poison, especially arsenic, to create immunity so that an assassin attempting to attack him in this way would not be successful.
Whether Mithridates’ story is true or not, this new study on morning sickness postulates the same mechanism of tolerance formation. It offers an explanation for two seemingly contradictory findings from the study: First, mothers were more likely to suffer from morning sickness—especially those who suffered from the condition. Hyperemesis gravidarumThey were found to have more GDF15 in their bloodstream, causing severe morning sickness.
But secondly, it turned out that the mothers were linked to a specific gene. Hyperemesis gravidarum If you are not pregnant, you have lower levels of GDF15 in your blood.
The idea is that if your body has developed a mithridate tolerance to GDF15 based on your genetic makeup (which in turn may have other beneficial effects in other parts of the body), you will not be as susceptible to these effects. Your risk of severe morning sickness is lower. The final piece of the puzzle is that GDF15 comes from the fetus, not the mother, and therefore represents a shock to the body during pregnancy.
The data they have for this part of the study seems compelling: it provides pretty strong evidence that while GDF15 is not the only explanation for severe morning sickness, it certainly plays a role: the researchers describe GDF15 as “necessary but not sufficient” . ‘. cause symptoms.
But here’s the less compelling part: They genetically modified mice that lack GDF15 and said they showed they were more sensitive to it, as would be expected based on the above considerations. This is less convincing because mice aren’t a particularly good model of morning sickness: they literally can’t vomit, so the scientists looked at the amount they ate as a (very) indirect analogy to morning sickness.
But it’s also less convincing because the data looks somewhat borderline: there was no really convincing difference in appetite between the genetically modified mice and some normal “wild-type” mice. This part of the study needs to be redone using new mouse samples, as the results are currently too weak to draw firm conclusions.
The mouse is actually just a small step in the right direction, according to a paper announcing the new research. While it may foresee a treatment for severe morning sickness (could desensitizing expectant mothers to GDF15 mean they are less likely to develop hyperemesis?), it currently only applies to mice: we need to know whether the effects of GDF15 in humans will have what effect -either effect. all according to their symptoms.
However, caution should be exercised when conducting such studies. As the authors of a new study note, one of the most tragic mistakes in modern scientific history was thalidomide, a drug that relieved the symptoms of morning sickness but also led to extremely serious birth defects in some children born to women who took it. Given history, it is not surprising that mothers are wary of treating morning sickness, and scientists need to go further to clearly prove that any interventions they develop based on GDF15 are safe.
As I mentioned above, there has been no real scientific progress in the field of morning sickness for a long time: until now it was a mystery. One of the most popular theories is that morning sickness arose as a form of protection for the developing baby: the mother secretes any toxins she might have eaten to prevent them from affecting the fetus in her womb.
In our evolutionary past, when people were much less confident about the quality and safety of the food they ate, this may have led to sick mothers being more likely to give birth to children who were more likely to survive.
There is evidence that the period of worst morning sickness coincides with the period of peak fetal vulnerability, which is consistent with the idea that morning sickness is an evolutionary adaptation, but in general these types of evolutionary hypotheses are very difficult to test.
However, now that we know that GDF15 is likely involved, scientists can begin to connect these ideas and try to develop a good theory to explain morning sickness, as well as the more extreme version of hyperemesis. Is this an evolutionary adaptation or just a disease? Why does this affect the majority of women, but about a third do not affect it at all? Why do some unfortunate women experience not only morning sickness, but also hyperemesis?
At the moment, we only have the very first answer to all these questions. But new research shows that after years of neglect, we are making some progress in this area again.
Source: I News
I’m Raymond Molina, a professional writer and journalist with over 5 years of experience in the media industry. I currently work for 24 News Reporters, where I write for the health section of their news website. In my role, I am responsible for researching and writing stories on current health trends and issues. My articles are often seen as thought-provoking pieces that provide valuable insight into the state of society’s wellbeing.