In 2004, a team of researchers at Tufts-New England
Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, investigated the fetal
cells that remained in the maternal blood stream after pregnancy.
The results were published in Transfer of Fetal Cells with
Multilineage Potential to Maternal Tissue. The team working on that
research included Kiarash Khosrotehrani, Kirby L. Johnson, Dong
Hyun Cha, Robert N. Salomon, and Diana W. Bianchi. The researchers
reported that the fetal cells passed to a pregnant woman during
pregnancy could develop into multiple cell types in her organs. They
studied these differentiated fetal cells in a cohort of women
fighting different diseases. The researchers found that the fetal
cells in the women differentiated into different cell types under
the influence of maternal tissues, and that those differentiated
cells concentrated in the tissue surrounding diseased tissues.
According to the team, this response could be a therapeutic response
to the disease in the once pregnant woman. The research indicated the long
lasting effects of pregnancy in a woman's body.
Details
- "Transfer of Fetal Cells with Multilineage Potential to Maternal Tissue" (2004), by Kiarash Khosrotehrani et al.
- Abboud, Alexis (Author)
- Turriziani Colonna, Federica (Editor)
- Arizona State University. School of Life Sciences. Center for Biology and Society. Embryo Project Encyclopedia. (Publisher)
- Arizona Board of Regents (Publisher)
- Experiment
- fetal cells
- Kiarash Khosrotehrani