Maternal Microchimerism in Juvenile Tonsils and Adenoids

Abstract

During pregnancy small amounts of cells pass between the mother and the fetus, and this transfer may give rise to a chimeric state that persist for years in both individuals. Both fetal and maternal microchimerism (MMc) have been associated with different autoimmune disorders. Information about MMc in tissues of healthy individuals is sparse but is important when looking for maternal cells within affected tissues of certain diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the occurrence of maternal cells in tonsils and adenoids of 20 healthy children between the ages of 2 and 15 years. All the children underwent surgery because of recurrent tonsillitis or respiratory obstruction. MMc was detected using an RT-PCR assay based on differences in gene polymorphisms between mother and child. We found maternal cells in the tonsils and/or adenoids in four of 20 children. This frequency is less than the frequency of maternal cells found in the peripheral blood of healthy adults but in agreement with the previously reported frequency of maternal chimerism in control tissues. (Pediatr Res 68: 199-204, 2010)

Lack of detectable fetal microchimerism in psoriasis vulgaris lesions and in non‐affected skin in spite of its presence in peripheral bloodCD34‐positive andCD34‐negative cells

“…In addition, our present data seem contradictory to most literature suggesting a significant association of microchimerism with most autoimmune diseases such as systemic sclerosis and other conditions mentioned above, whereas we did not observed higher frequencies of FMc in blood cell subpopulations of patients with psoriasis in comparison to controls. Moreover, no microchimeric cells in affected and unaffected skin were detected.…”

“…FMc may be one explanation of higher prevalence of autoimmune diseases in women . An association of FMc with a disease risk was described in systemic sclerosis, autoimmune thyroiditis, systemic lupus erythematosus, primary biliary cirrhosis, type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and other diseases . However, no study on microchimerism in psoriasis, a disease which also has an autoimmune component, has been reported so far (PubMed search, February 3, 2016) except for our earlier preliminary report .…”

Predictors of maternal‐origin microchimerism in young women in the Philippines

“…Comparing MMc levels across studies is difficult because of differences in Mc detection methods, type of tissue or cells collected, and demographics of participant populations. However, studies of MMc that use qPCR detection methods in peripheral blood from healthy children and adults in Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States report prevalences of detectable MMc of 20–40% (Jonsson et al, 2010; Kanold et al, 2013; Lambert et al, 2004; Loubière et al, 2006; Nelson et al, 2007; Sunku et al, 2010; Suskind et al, 2011; Thompson et al, 2013), which is somewhat lower than our study population in the Philippines. MMc concentrations in these studies range from 0.1–153 gEq of MMc per 100,000 gEq tested (ibid), which is similar to the range observed in our study, with the exception of one outlier.…”

Cellular Subsets of Maternal Microchimerism in Umbilical Cord Blood

“…The methodology of chimerism analysis with quantitative real-time (qRT) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has been described previously. 23 Initially, screening of the mother and the child was performed by using a small amount of DNA (10 ng) in a PCR assay. The allelic markers used were: S01a, S02, S03, S04a, S05b, S07a, S07b, S08b, ID1, ID2, ID4 and ID7.…”