PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jimena, Brittany
AU  - Kazimierczyk, Daniel
AU  - Kazimierczyk, Simon
AU  - Moya, Haley
AU  - Shin, Eva
AU  - Li, Li
AU  - Korgaonkar, Parimal
AU  - Porter, Caryn
AU  - Seed, Brian
AU  - Cherayil, Bobby J.
AU  - Jain, Nitya
TI  - Prenatal maternal infection promotes maternal microchimeric cells to alter infection risk in male offspring
AID  - 10.1101/2025.01.17.633596
DP  - 2025 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2025.01.17.633596
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2025/01/22/2025.01.17.633596.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2025/01/22/2025.01.17.633596.full
AB  - Vertically transferred maternal cells or maternal microchimeric cells (MMCs) engraft the fetus and persist in offspring for long periods of time. How altered maternal immune states arising from infection affect MMCs and their function in offspring is poorly understood. Here, we show that pregnancy-associated transient maternal infection alters MMCs to differentially regulate immunity in offspring. In male offspring of dams previously infected with Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, MMCs confer a pro-inflammatory type 17 T effector phenotype that leads to enhanced protective immunity to an unrelated Salmonella infection. Thus, acquired maternal cells imprinted by microbial exposure during pregnancy exert an antigen agnostic and sex-differential effect on offspring immunity, and may potentially be targeted to deliver immune benefits to infants in the vulnerable early life period.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.