Fetal Microchimerism in the Human Brain

人脑中的胎儿微嵌合现象

• 批准号: 8413044
• 负责人: J. Lee Nelson
• 金额: $ 20.76万
• 依托单位: FRED HUTCHINSON CANCER RESEARCH CENTER
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-02-01 至 2015-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8413044
• 关键词: Adult; Adverse effects; Affect; Age; Autoimmune Process; Autopsy; Biological Assay; Biology; Blood; Brain; Brain region; Cardiac Myocytes; Cell Count; Cells; Child; DNA; Degenerative Disorder; Development; Disease; Effector Cell; Epilepsy; Evaluation; Family member; Female; Fetus; Foundations; Genetic Polymorphism; Health; Heart; Hepatocyte; Human; Immune; Immune Targeting; Immunologic Surveillance; Individual; Kidney; Knowledge; Life; Liver; Location; Microchimerism; Mothers; Mus; Organ; Pancreas; Patients; Pharmaceutical Preparations; Phenotype; Pregnancy; Prevalence; Refractory; Siblings; Source; Specimen; Spleen; Time; Twin Multiple Birth; Woman; Work; fetal; fetus cell; human disease; human female; islet; male; neoplastic; research study; tissue repair; trafficking; tumor

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Microchimerism (Mc) refers to harboring a small amount of cells or DNA from a genetically distinct individual. Many years after the physical union of mother and child ends fetal Mc is found in the mother and maternal Mc is found in her progeny. Fetal Mc and maternal Mc have been identified in children and adults, in blood and organs including heart, liver, spleen, kidney and pancreas. Despite the importance of the brain to human health and function a fundamental gap in knowledge exists for Mc in the human brain. That human brain is likely to contain fetal Mc in women and maternal Mc in her progeny is supported by recent experimental studies in which fetal Mc was identified in the maternal mouse brain and maternal Mc in the fetal mouse brain. Moreover, in experimental and human studies Mc appears to have the capacity to differentiate creating, for example, cardiac myocytes in the heart, islet b cells in the pancreas and hepatocytes in the liver. Studies in this proposal will for the first time identify and characterize naturally acquired fetal Mc and maternal Mc in the human brain. To establish fundamental initial knowledge fetal Mc prevalence, quantity and cell phenotypes will be determined across age and according to specific brain regions. To establish initial information about maternal Mc surgically excised brain specimens will be studied from patients with medication refractory epilepsy for whom family members participate. In these studies maternal Mc will be specifically assayed by HLA and other polymorphism specific quantitative PCR (qPCR). Participation of all family members will permit further evaluation for other potential Mc sources including from an older sibling, passed by the mother to the fetus of a subsequent pregnancy, or a vanished twin. The ways in which Mc could affect the human brain are multiple and diverse, both to the benefit and detriment of the individual. If naturally acquired Mc is a basic aspect of biology as we hypothesize, the proposed work will have created a foundation from which diverse disorders of the human brain can be investigated, including autoimmune, neoplastic, developmental and degenerative conditions.

项目总结/文摘