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Updated: Jul 8, 2026
Isolation of Leukocytes from the Murine Tissues at the Maternal-Fetal Interface
Published on: May 21, 2015
Maternal microchimerism in human fetal tissues
Anna Maria Jonsson1, Mehmet Uzunel, Cecilia Götherström
1Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Center for Fetal Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Huddinge, Sweden. anna.jonsson@karolinska.se
Objective:
The aim of the present study was to analyze the presence of maternal cells in human fetal tissues in the second trimester.
Study Design:
Tissues from 11 second-trimester fetuses terminated because of social reasons or because of malformations and/or trisomy were investigated. By cell sorting and polymerase chain reaction amplification, we studied the presence of maternal CD3+, CD19+, CD34+, and CD45+ in different fetal tissues and in placenta.
Results:
In the group of fetuses with normal karyotype and normal autopsy findings, 4 of 5 fetuses were positive for maternal microchimerism. In the group in which the fetuses were diagnosed with trisomy 21 and/or malformations, we found cells of maternal origin in 3 of 6 fetuses.
Conclusion:
The results from this study indicate that maternal microchimerism is a common phenomenon in the second-trimester fetuses. Maternal cells of lymphoid and myeloid lineages and hematopoietic progenitors are widely distributed in the second-trimester fetuses.
