The findings, which were posted to the preprint database bioRxiv June 10 but have not been peer-reviewed yet, are part of a growing body of work showing that a mother and fetus exchange cells during pregnancy — a phenomenon known as "microchimerism." Previously, scientists had found that a mother's brain harbors cells with her children's DNA.
More broadly, the work reinforces the idea that microchimerism is "a normal process of mammalian biology," Boddy said.
To overcome this challenge, a team led by Sami Kanaan, a staff scientist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, analyzed brain tissue that had been surgically removed from dozens of children with severe epilepsy as part of their treatment. The patients ranged in age from 28 days to 19 years at the time of their surgery, and their mothers provided DNA samples through cheek swabs.
Out of 37 mother-child pairs, 26 children — 70% — had their mother's cells in their brains. These maternal cells were distributed across multiple regions of the brain, including the frontal, temporal and parietal lobes, which sit on the brain's outer surface, and the hippocampus, which is buried deep inside. Each sample had, on average, about 2.2 maternal cells per 100,000, though one sample from the hippocampus had 459 maternal cells per 100,000 and 11 children had no evidence of maternal DNA in their brains.
Being a firstborn child seemed to increase the odds of having maternal cells in the brain. Of the children who carried their mother's cells, 14 were firstborns and 12 were later-born. In contrast, among the children who didn't have these cells, only one was a firstborn and 10 were later-born.
The transformed cells included neurons; oligodendrocytes, which produce the protective sheath around neurons; astrocytes, which support many brain functions and help fuel neurons; microglia, the brain's immune cells; and endothelial cells, which line blood vessels.
During pregnancy, the mother and fetus exchange cells — a phenomenon called "microchimerism." (Image credit: Rhenizara S via Getty Images)
Checking healthy brains
To see whether these findings also applied to people without epilepsy, the researchers examined brain autopsy data from 29 individuals with no known neurodevelopmental conditions, ranging in age from 22 weeks of gestation to 40 years. They also analyzed brain tissue from three men in their late 80s and early 90s without any known brain conditions originally collected as part of an Alzheimer's disease study.
The researchers suspect these foreign cells are maternal, but they couldn't confirm it because they didn't have DNA from the mothers. It is possible that the foreign cells came from a twin; an older sibling; a past pregnancy, miscarriage or abortion (in females); or, rarely, from a maternal grandmother, the team wrote in their paper.
Given that these microchimeric cells take on very different roles, it would be interesting to know whether that diversity reflects their origins — for example, whether they came from a mother, an older biological sibling or a maternal grandmother, said Dr. Sing Sing Way, a microchimerism researcher at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center who was not involved in the study.
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Because microchimeric cells appear to be common, Boddy suspects they "are doing an important job in the brain, so understanding their function could be very important for understanding healthy brain development."
This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.
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