RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Prenatal maternal infection promotes maternal microchimeric cells to alter infection risk in male offspring
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2025.01.17.633596
DO 10.1101/2025.01.17.633596
A1 Jimena, Brittany
A1 Kazimierczyk, Daniel
A1 Kazimierczyk, Simon
A1 Moya, Haley
A1 Shin, Eva
A1 Li, Li
A1 Korgaonkar, Parimal
A1 Porter, Caryn
A1 Seed, Brian
A1 Cherayil, Bobby J.
A1 Jain, Nitya
YR 2025
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2025/01/22/2025.01.17.633596.abstract
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.