This is incredible, and the possibilities are pretty much endless. A deputy from Reno had to have a bone marrow transplant around 4 years ago, and since that time , his DNA has changed almost completely to the DNA of his bone marrow donor . The article says that he was warned that it could change his blood DNA, but it has also changed other parts of his DNA, as they discovered when they did a cheek swab. The article states that even the DNA in his semen was changed to that of the donor. Does this mean that he would father children who were actually related to the donor as much, or even more so, than the father ? “But four years after his lifesaving procedure, it was not only Long’s blood that was affected. Swabs of his lips and cheeks contained his DNA – but also that of his donor. Even more surprising to Long and other colleagues at the crime lab, all of the DNA in his semen belonged to his donor. “I thought that it was pretty incredible that I can disappear and someone else can appear,” he said.” It is almost mind-boggling to think of how many people could be affected by something like this ! When a person has an operation, or loses blood from some kind of an accident, they would get a blood transfusion, and even if their DNA was not replaced as much as this man in Reno, it could certainly still affect the DNA. And what about people who have transplants, like hearts, kidneys, and other organs ? There are stories about people who have received a donated organ, and their personality begins to change to something similar to the organ donor. Here is the article, for more information : https://www.independent.co.uk/news/...ong-forensic-science-police-a9238636.html?amp
This is really interesting, but also kind of disturbing and scary. If I thought a transplant of any kind would change me or my DNA, I'm not sure I would want to do it. I can see a lot of medical good come from it, but a whole lot of wrongful manipulation could come from it as well. I'm visiting my parents next week for a few days and look forward to getting their opinions on this.
Since red blood cells are produced by the hemopoietic cells in our bone marrow, I can kind of see how a marrow transplant could possibly make some change in one's DNA. I do question the totality of it but who am I to say? As to a heart, liver or lung transplant; I can't see how that would make a difference because the new organ is receiving the new patients blood and DNA held by that blood. As it is in any organ, old cells die away and new one's are produced and they would be produced under the influence of the patients biochemisty.
There are "human chimeras". Those are people who have two DNA strains in their body. It's usually from a twin who was "absorbed" or "fused" during very early gestation. Presently there are only about 100 known human chimeras, but as DNA testing gets more popular, researchers expect that number to dramatically increase. I watched a very interesting documentary on chimeras called "The Twin Inside Me".