Millions of mother cells live inside their offspring for life… Study reveals the secret
A recent scientific study published in the journal ” Immunity ” revealed that millions of cells from the mother continue to live inside her children’s bodies throughout their lives, and that the immune system learns from the time of pregnancy how to coexist with them without attacking them.
Every person carries in their body millions of cells that do not originally belong to them, but came from their mother before their birth, according to a report published by the science website ” ScienceAlert “.
Although the immune system is programmed to attack any foreign cells, these maternal cells remain in the offspring’s bodies for decades without triggering any immune response. Now, scientists have arrived at a precise explanation for how this happens and why it persists for life.
Millions of mother cells live inside her offspring for life.
The study revealed that a small number of the mother’s immune system cells cross the placenta during pregnancy and play a key role in “training” the fetus’s immune system to accept the presence of the mother’s cells and not attack them after birth, and indeed throughout a person’s life.
This phenomenon is known as microchimerism, which refers to the exchange of cells between mother and fetus. Scientists have known for over 50 years that:
- Every woman who carries a fetus later retains some of its cells in her body.
- Every human being also retains some of their mother’s cells within their body.
But this fact has remained a mystery to immunology, because the basic rule is that the immune system should attack any cells that do not belong to the body.
A team of researchers at the Children’s Hospital Center of Cincinnati, led by pediatric infectious disease specialist Singh Singh Wai, conducted an in-depth study on mice, using genetic engineering techniques to track maternal immune cells.
The results showed that a small population of maternal immune cells, similar to bone marrow and dendritic cells, persists in the newborn’s body after birth, playing a pivotal role in activating regulatory T cells that keep the immune system in balance and prevent the mother’s cells from being attacked.
When the researchers removed this specific group of maternal cells from the bodies of the young mice, the result was shocking:
- The regulatory T cells disappeared.
- With it, the immune system’s tolerance to the mother cells disappeared.
This confirms that immune acceptance is not a one-time process that occurs during pregnancy, but rather requires continuous maintenance through the presence of these cells.
Researchers believe this discovery has significant implications for understanding many diseases, especially since microchimerism is increasingly being linked to:
- Autoimmune diseases.
- Some types of cancer.
- Nervous system disorders.
Singh Singh Wai says, “The new tools we have developed to study these cells will help scientists pinpoint their role precisely in various pathological contexts, whether they are a direct cause of disease or part of the natural healing process.”