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Isolation of Precursor B-cell Subsets from Umbilical Cord Blood
14:06

Isolation of Precursor B-cell Subsets from Umbilical Cord Blood

Published on: April 16, 2013

Transmaternal cell flow leads to antigen-experienced cord blood

Miranda P Dierselhuis1, Els C Blokland, Jos Pool

  • 1Department of Immunohematology and Blood Transfusion, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands. m.p.dierselhuis@lumc.nl

Blood
|May 26, 2012
PubMed

Umbilical cord blood (UCB) is used for HSCT. It is known that UCB can comprise Ag-specific T cells. Here we question whether solely transmaternal cell flow may immunize UCB. Twenty-three female UCB samples were collected from healthy mothers and analyzed for minor histocompatibility Ag HY-specific responses. Forty-two of 104 tetramer(pos) T-cell clones, isolated from 16 of 17 UCB samples, showed male-specific lysis in vitro. Male microchimerism was present in 6 of 12 UCB samples analyzed. In conclusion, female UCB comprises HY-specific cytotoxic T cells. The immunization is presumably caused by transmaternal cell flow of male microchimerism present in the mother. The presence of immune cells in UCB that are not directed against maternal foreign Ags is remarkable and may explain the reported clinical observation of improved HSCT outcome with younger sibling donors.

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