MOTHERS AND OFFSPRING CAN SHARE CELLS THROUGHOUT LIFE

The article started with the statement that the physical link between mother and child could not be separated with the cutting of the umbilical cord. According to a study provided for from materials by the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, during pregnancy, several cells move back and forth between mother and fetus and even decades later, such can still be uncovered of both the former’s and latter’s tissues and organs. This is known to be called as maternal and fetal microchimerism or the mixing of cells from two genetically distinct individuals. These cells play potentially important roles in the body and cells can be seen under compound monocular microscopes.

Doctors J. Lee Nelson of Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center’s Clinical Research Division and Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington as well as V. R. Gadi, Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and a research associate in the Hutchinson Center’s Clinical Research Division are two of the world’s leading researchers in microchimerism. They first reported on its potentially beneficial effects as outlined and summarized by the article below.

In January 2007, Dr. Nelson stated that the cells passed from mother to child during pregnancy could cause differentiation of the course of development into functioning islet beta cells that produce insulin in the child. Same study by Dr. Nelson, as discussed by the same article, discovered maternal DNA in greater amounts in the blood of children and young adults with Type I diabetes. These cells implied that they might be attempting to repair damaged tissue. Further more, the study suggested that if maternal microchimerism would result in cells that make insulin, treating a diabetic child might be done by harvesting a mother’s stem cells. This approach would be far better than donating islet cells from a dead body especially one intended for dissection that has the possibility of being completely genetically mismatched.

Another research paper by Nelson and Gadi uncovered findings that suggested fetal cells that stay in a woman’s body long after pregnancy might reduce the risk of breast cancer in women. A thorough explanation of this finding can be found in the original article.

In addition, microchimerism, according to the article, might help women with rheumatoid arthritis by eradicating the disease during pregnancy. A beneficial role of fetal microchimerism as suggested by the research finding, as discussed by the article, elevated levels of fetal microchimerism which significantly correlated with pregnancy-induced amelioration of rheumatoid arthritis. The original article enumerated a number of benefits still in its study of microchimerism.

Furthermore, it was discussed that Nelson lab’s expansion of its study of microchimerism is ongoing especially into the fields of reproduction, HIV/AIDS and transplantation. Scientists would like to delve into matters like complications of pregnancy, especially that of a disorder characterized by high blood pressure in women in their third semester of pregnancy known as preeclamsia and recurrent pregnancy loss in connection to microchimerism.

There are other research studies which would use compound monocular microscopes, which are used for viewing microscopic slides containing biological specimens such as those cited. Unstained microscope slides with living or fresh tissue specimens can also be viewed using these compound monocular microscopes. However, an optional phase contrast kit for better viewing contrast might be needed. Phase Contrast Microscope (PCM) is a special microscope viewing technique that translates a shift in light wave phase to a shift in intensity and contrast.

Tissue culture microscopes are also helpful in studies like these. A typical tissue culture microscope may also be fitted for phase contrast microscopy (PCM) as unstained living organisms, living cells and tissue samples are often viewed. The phase contrast feature allows greater viewing contrast for the tissue specimens that normally would appear transparent when unstained.

Moreover, the original article concluded future plans of Nelson’s group regarding investigations in patients with HIV and whether there would be a correlation with whether there is progression or non-progression to AIDS. The emergence of microchimerism was considered an important new theme in biology especially the discovery that a mother’s cells can turn up in her adult progeny and that fetal cells can occur in women who were once pregnant. Original article