Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
Biol Open. 2022 Nov 1;11(11). doi: 10.1242/bio.059334. Epub 2022 Nov 9.
The maternal cells transferred into the fetus during gestation persist long after birth in the progeny. These maternal cells have been hypothesized to promote the maturation of the fetal immune system in utero but there are still significant gaps in our knowledge of their potential roles after birth. To provide insights into these maternal cells' postnatal functional roles, we set up a transgenic mouse model to specifically eliminate maternal cells in the neonates by diphtheria toxin injection and confirmed significant depletion in the spleens. We then performed immunophenotyping of the spleens of two-week-old pups by mass cytometry to pinpoint the immune profile differences driven by the depletion of maternal cells in early postnatal life. We observed a heightened expression of markers related to activation and maturation in some natural killer and T cell populations. We hypothesize these results to indicate a potential postnatal regulation of lymphocytic responses by maternal cells. Together, our findings highlight an immunological influence of maternal microchimeric cells postnatally, possibly protecting against adverse hypersensitivity reactions of the neonate at a crucial time of new encounters with self and environmental antigens.
在胎儿发育期间转移到胎儿体内的母体细胞在后代中会长期存在。这些母体细胞被假设可以促进胎儿免疫系统在子宫内的成熟，但我们对它们在出生后的潜在作用仍然知之甚少。为了深入了解这些母体细胞的产后功能作用，我们建立了一种转基因小鼠模型，通过注射白喉毒素特异性地消除新生儿的母体细胞，并证实其脾脏中的细胞大量减少。然后，我们通过质谱细胞术对两周大的幼鼠脾脏进行免疫表型分析，以确定由早期产后生活中母体细胞耗竭引起的免疫特征差异。我们观察到一些自然杀伤细胞和 T 细胞群中与激活和成熟相关的标志物表达水平升高。我们假设这些结果表明母体细胞可能在产后对淋巴细胞反应进行了潜在的调节。总之，我们的研究结果强调了母体微嵌合细胞在产后具有免疫影响，可能在新生儿与自身和环境抗原新接触的关键时期保护其免受过敏反应的不利影响。
