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Updated: Sep 19, 2026

Induction of Maternal Immune Activation in Mice at Mid-gestation Stage with Viral Mimic Poly(I:C)
Published on: March 25, 2016
Prenatal maternal infection promotes maternal microchimeric cells to alter infection risk in male offspring
Brittany Jimena1, Daniel Kazimierczyk1, Simon Kazimierczyk1
1Mucosal Immunology and Biology Research Center, Massachusetts General Hospital for Children, Charlestown, MA, United States.
Abstract:
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.
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