Leukemia Research made headlines in January last year when a study on identical twins confirmed for the first time the existence of stem cells in childhood leukemia. Now, nearly a year on, new data has emerged shedding more light on how leukemia, the most common form of cancer in children, develops from birth.
The original study led by Professors Mel Greaves and Tariq Enver at University of Oxford compared the blood cells of identical twins Oilvia, who has leukemia and Isabella, who does not. They found that both twins have the same genetically abnormal primitive cells in their blood, which were shown to have developed during pregnancy, supporting claims that childhood cancer starts in the womb.

With more funding from Leukemia Research the scientists set out to identify the genetic events that must be set in motion to convert these pre-leukemic stem cells into full-blown leukemia in some children.

Dr Caroline Bateman, a clinical scientist working with Professor Mel Greaves, looked at the blood cells of five more pairs of identical twins where one of the children has developed leukemia. Although it was presumed by many scientists that there would be a common genetic pathway to explain how leukemia develops in some children, this study has revealed that there is no pattern in the way the pre-leukemic stem cells behave within individuals.

These findings, which were previously unconfirmed and unsuspected, were announced at the 50th Anniversary Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco, 6-9 December 2008. The study was selected from over 6,000 applications to be presented at this prestigious event.

(Source: 50th Anniversary Meeting of the American Society of Haematology: Leukaemia Research UK: January 2008)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ynfNfCqLlo&eurl=http://jaringanluas.com/2008/12/18/twins-bathroom-mirror-prank-funny/&feature=player_embedded

I just received a letter today from National Geographic and they wanted me to share more information with you about what to expect on In The Womb:Identical Twins…

“I wanted to send you some more details about the program for your information:

In The Womb: Identical Twins
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/in-the-womb
Sunday, December 21 at 9pm ET/PT
Identical twins are as close as nature gets to human cloning. They look alike, sound alike, and can often lead strikingly similar lives – with the same jobs, tastes, hobbies, love interests, and phobias. But “clones” they are not, as any parent would attest. Now, with the state-of-the-art 4D ultrasound, National Geographic Channel goes In the Womb to reveal the hidden – and surprisingly different – world of twin fetal development. In this fourth installment of NGC’s critically acclaimed series, explore the fascinating findings that identical twins aren’t a 100 percent genetic match. Then, we examine a puzzle: identical twins who share the same set of genes, yet look very different.

Below is the full press release about the program, as well as download links to some high-resolution photos from the program.

On the series Web site, you will also find:
·         A video clip <http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/in-the-womb#tab-Videos/06198_00>  from In The Womb: Identical Twins showing you an unprecedented look at the development of twins in utero
·         “Are They Identical?” game <http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/content/in-the-womb/twins-game/> , which challenges you to compare twinned photos to find 10 differences in each, and learn facts about identical twins, particularly how they may not actually be fully identical
·         More interesting facts and timeline about multiples”

Here are some basic facts about multiples:

■ Twins occur naturally in 1 out of every 90 births; triplets in 1 out of every 10,000 births; and quadruplets in 1 out of every 650,000 births.

■ Fraternal twins occur more often in certain families and in certain ethnic groups (the rates are 1 in 70 in African Americans and 1 in 300 for women of Chinese descent with whites falling in between). The incidence of fraternal twins also increases with maternal age, weight, height, and parity (that is, the number of pregnancies a woman has had).

■ Identical twins occur in approximately 4 out of every 1,000 births and are unrelated to maternal age, race, or parity.

■ Fraternal twins typically look no more alike than any other pair of siblings. They can be either of the same sex or one of each sex.

■ Identical twins have identical features: hair, eye color, blood type, and so on. If, however, one twin developed more rapidly in uterus than the other one, they may not look identical at birth. (more…)

I think this will be very interesting, especially for those who have twins or are a twin.

“Walk around the Upper West Side with a double stroller, as I do from time to time, and it’s amazing how long it can take to make it to Fairway. An older gentleman wants to know whether there were twins in the family. A middle-aged woman needs to stop and list every pair of twins she’s come to know in a five-block radius. There are many, many, many young twins in that five-block radius. The listing of them takes a long time. There are twins on 72nd Street and two sets in her building alone and girl twins on the corner and boy twins she always sees at the Starbucks … Is it something in the water?

This person invariably wants the parent of twins to share in her incredulity at the freak nature of so many twins proliferating in so concentrated an area. Never mind that the same abundance quite likely exists in most gentrified areas of the five boroughs, the kinds of places inhabited by two-career families, or women who had a good long run of New York dating before settling down to start a family in their mid-30s.

Of course, there’s nothing freakish or remarkable about how so many twins came to crowd the preschools of New York City. Older mothers are more prone to throwing off two eggs at once, but they’re also more likely to have trouble conceiving, and opting for in vitro fertilization. (The number of twins nationwide has increased by 65 percent in the past two decades.)

Maybe Jennifer Lopez, who, her father announced on TV last week, is expecting twins, is one of those two-eggs-per-cycle women; maybe, as her father suggested, it’s in the genes (his sister has twins). Or maybe she opted for reproductive technology, as do so many other women in New York and Los Angeles in their 30s and 40s. As one friend (with twins) responds when she’s asked if there are a lot of twins in her family, “No, but there are a lot at our fertility clinic.”

Because the pregnancy rate is higher the more embryos are transferred, doctors in the United States often encourage women to transfer at least two, and the older the woman, the harder they push her to transfer three or more. Don’t worry, the doctor will assure an aspiring mother, the chances of getting pregnant with twins, should you transfer two embryos, is only about 20 percent.

What isn’t made clear (and what the would-be mother is usually too rattled to ask) are the odds of conceiving twins should the in vitro actually work, and that answer is around 33 percent. To believe that the reproductive technology will work is to accept the high probability that the future will involve endless jokes about double trouble, and yes, there will double trouble, as well as double joy, triple sleeplessness and so much artful juggling that simply leaving the house on time makes the stagecraft of Cirque du Soleil look banal.

One could stop here to imagine the way the world will look when so many children in New York come of age as dualities. Will the three sets of twins in Zoe’s kindergarten class leave her feeling that she’s missing an essential other half? Will life as a twin be an easier experience when it’s so much less of an abnormality?

If all goes as expected, however, the twins glut we’re experiencing now will not be a permanent facet of life in the city. Instead, there will most likely be a 10- or 15-year window that will be known as the twins years. A 37-year-old-man named Max will mention at some dinner party in 2039 that he’s actually a twin, and the host will say, oh yes, that makes sense, you’re the right age, aren’t you — fraternal, of course? (more…)

Lisa Marie (40) gave birth to twin daughters today. Her father was a twin and her mother’s younger brother was a twin as well.

Check out this picture….I think I can tell what she is saying!

1. Join a twins club. Talk with others who have twins.

2.  Find distinctive names for both babies to grow into their own people. Please don’t refer to them as the twins!

3.  Give them different colored bedding and clothes to be able to tell them apart. At first you may want to use wrist bands.

4.  You may feel a preference for one twin over the other but in time that will subdue.

5. Promote them being their own person while still allowing them to compliment one another.

6. Seek and accept help. It’s hard enough to raise one baby much less two!

7. Cat nap whenever you can. They say if you run the vaccuumm the white noise will put them to sleep letting you catch some Z’s in the meantime.

8. Save yourself the headache and create a routine for everything.

9.  Don’t feel bad about spending more time with one twin versus the other. Some babies are simply more fussy than the others. In the future you can make it up to the less attention craved twin.

10.  Let Dad help! Split time and attention with your twins by involving the other active parent.