Majallah-i Zanān, Māmā̓ī va Nāzā̓ī-i Īrān (Nov 2022)
Microchimerism; Bilateral migration of cells between mother and fetus
Abstract
Introduction: The bilateral cell traffic between fetus and mother probably occurs in all pregnancies and is participated in the development of fetal immune system, tissue repair in autoimmune diseases, cancer and maternal immune surveillance. Progressive evidences indicate that after giving birth, embryonic cells persist and lead to microchimerism. Despite ample evidences of two-way cell traffic, a significant portion of embryonic microchimerism remains ambiguous. This review study was performed aimed to investigate the latest data about the microchimerism and its function in both mother and baby. Methods: In this review, to find the related articles, databases of PubMed, Science Direct, Scopus, and Google Scholar were searched using the keywords of microchimerism, maternal-fetal cellular trafficking (MFCT) and semi-allogeneic fetus from 1991 to 2021. Q1 journals and articles with documented information were prioritized. Results: During a successful human pregnancy, the semi-allogeneic fetus is protected from the attack of the maternal immune system possibly by suppressing the placental immune response, which contributes to microchimerism. Embryonic cells mainly are stabilized in the maternal bone marrow and are able to differentiate into tissue-specific adult cells in damaged organs of mother Conclusion: Microchimeric cells are significantly involved in some immune responses and diseases related to the immune system. Also, the ability of embryonic cells to cross the placental barrier and the blood-brain barrier, migrate to various tissues and differentiate into several types of cells, have developed the strategies for cell therapy by intravenous transplantation of stem or ancestral cells. Also, the nucleated embryonic cells circulated in the mother's blood can provide fetal DNA for noninvasive prenatal diagnosis.
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