Page 109 - The Miracle of Human Creation

THE CREATION OF A HUMAN BEING FROM A CELL

reach manhood, then you decline into old age though some of you
may die young so that you may reach a predetermined age and so that
hopefully you will grow in wisdom. It is He Who ordains life and de-
ath. When He decides on something, He need only say: "Be!" and it is.
(Qur'an, 40: 67-68)

The Special Protective System Prepared For the Embryo
The cells which attach to the mother's uterus continue to develop
and be nourished in this secure place. But this is an amazing thing, beca-
use the quickly growing embryo is normally confronted by a serious dan-
ger—the mother's immune system.
The immune system regards every kind of foreign material entering
the body as an enemy and attacks it. The embryo's genetic make-up is dif-
ferent from that of the mother and, for her body, it is a foreign organism.
The moment the mother's defensive cells become aware of the presence of
this foreign organism, they rush towards the uterus. If no special preca-
utions were taken, the defensive cells would surely kill the embryo.
But there is no such occurrence under healthy conditions, because
the embryo is taken from the beginning under special protection.
Before the embryo attaches itself to the wall of the uterus, trophob-
last cells begin to form around the surface of the embryo, forming a kind
of filter between the mother's blood vessels and the embryo. The mother's
immune cells are unable to detect the trophoblastic tissues because they
lack some proteins that most other cells carry and which help the immune
cells to detect them. Thanks to this characteristic of trophoblast cells, the
embryo is protected from assault by the maternal immune system. More-

over, some of the trophoblast cells assist in causing oxygen, nutrients and
other necessary substances to reach the embryo. 30
Now, let's examine in detail the special structure of these cells.

The Engineering Ability of the Trophoblast Cells

As we explained in the previous pages, despite the fact that the trop-
hoblast cells have multiplied from the same egg cell, they separate from

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