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Research Article: Prenatal maternal infection promotes maternal microchimeric cells to alter infection risk in male offspring

Date Published: 2026-09-03

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.

Introduction:
Exposure to infectious agents during pregnancy can impact offspring immune responses to infections and vaccinations ( 1 ). Chronic infection during pregnancy can affect infant health independently of pathogen transmission. For instance, HIV-exposed but uninfected infants have reduced levels of maternal antibodies and show increased susceptibility to infection by unrelated pathogens compared with infants not exposed to HIV ( 2 ). Human malarial and helminth infection during pregnancy correlates with impaired…

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