Microchimerism
Microchimerism is the persistence of a small number of another person's cells in an individual's body, most commonly from fetal cells that cross into the mother's bloodstream during pregnancy and remain for decades.
Fetal cells in maternal tissue
[edit]Fetal cells cross into the maternal bloodstream as early as four to five weeks into pregnancy. Autopsy analysis of tissue from women who had recently been pregnant with sons found male-origin cells (identified by Y-chromosome DNA) in the lung, spleen, liver, kidney, brain, and heart at significantly higher rates than in non-pregnant women; the lung carried the highest concentration, followed by spleen, liver, kidney, brain, and heart.[1]
In autopsied brain tissue from 59 women, 63% (37 of 59) carried male-origin DNA, most likely fetal microchimerism from a son, present across multiple brain regions; the oldest woman with detectable fetal cells was 94. Male microchimerism was less prevalent and less concentrated in the brains of women with Alzheimer's disease than in women without neurologic disease.[2]
Function in maternal tissue repair
[edit]In pregnant mice, fetal stem cells tagged with a fluorescent marker migrated to sites of induced maternal heart injury, engrafted onto the damaged tissue, and differentiated into cardiomyocytes, smooth muscle cells, and blood vessel-lining cells.[3] A parallel effect in humans has not been directly demonstrated, though women who develop peripartum cardiomyopathy tend to recover better than most other heart-failure patients.
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ↑ Rijnink EC, Penning ME, Wolterbeek R, Wilhelmus S, Zandbergen M, van Duinen SG, Schutte J, Bruijn JA, Bajema IM. "Tissue microchimerism is increased during pregnancy: a human autopsy study," Mol Hum Reprod. 2015;21(11):857-864. doi:10.1093/molehr/gav047.
- ↑ Chan WFN, Gurnot C, Montine TJ, Sonnen JA, Guthrie KA, Nelson JL. "Male Microchimerism in the Human Female Brain," PLOS ONE. 2012;7(9):e45592. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0045592.
- ↑ Kara RJ, Bolli P, Karakikes I, Matsunaga I, Tripodi J, Tanweer O, Altman P, Shachter NS, Nakano A, Najfeld V, Chaudhry HW. "Fetal Cells Traffic to Injured Maternal Myocardium and Undergo Cardiac Differentiation," Circ Res. 2012;110(1):82-93. doi:10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.111.249037. PMID 22082491.