I have only been part of the Constellation Talk community for about 6
months or less so the following information may have already been
discussed. I was intrigued when a colleague mentioned, after being
at a scientific conference, that fetal cells colonize the mother. So
I immediately `Googled' FETAL CELLS IN MOTHER which returned many
links, 2 of which I cite here for anyone to follow up:
http://www.gentlebirth.org/archives/stemCellsToMother.html
http://humupd.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/10/6/497
The second link will take you to a review paper published in 2004 in
Human Reproduction Update, a scientific journal.
It seems that fetal cells colonize the mother and viable fetal cells
have been demonstrated in the mother for at least 30 years. This
happens whether there is a miscarriage, abortion or there is a live
birth. I find there are some interesting corollaries to this: the
mother has cells of her child which contain half the mother's genes
and also half the father's genes. How's that for another form of
bonding with both the child and the father? There are some
indications that these fetal cells have healing properties in the
mother.
Here's a abstract from a paper by Khosrotehrani K. and Bianchi D.W.
titled "Multi-lineage potential of fetal cells in maternal tissue: a
legacy in reverse" published in the Journal of Cell Science volume
118, pages 1559-63, 2005 (Diana Bianchi is one of the leading
researchers in this field):
"Fetal cells circulate in pregnant women and persist in blood and
tissue for decades post-partum. The mother thus becomes chimeric.
Factors that may influence such fetal cell microchimerism include
histocompatibility, fetal or placental abnormalities, or a
reproductive history that includes miscarriage or elective
termination. Fetal cell microchimerism is associated with some
maternal autoimmune diseases, such as systemic sclerosis. Moreover, a
novel population of fetal cells, the pregnancy-associated progenitor
cells (PAPCs), appears to differentiate in diseased or injured
maternal tissue. The cellular origin of these cells is at present
unknown but could be a hematopoietic stem cell, a mesenchymal stem
cell, or a novel cell type. Pregnancy therefore results in the
acquisition of cells with stem-cell-like properties that may
influence maternal health post-partum. Rather than triggering
disease, these cells may instead combat it."
Jonathan Hooton
