Peripheral Plasmodium falciparum Infection in Early Pregnancy Is Associated With Increased Maternal Microchimerism in the Offspring

作者：Neta Simon, Jaclyn Shallat, J. C. Houck, Prasanna Jagannathan, Mary Prahl, Mary Muhindo, Abel Kakuru, Peter Olwoch, Margaret E. Feeney, Whitney E. Harrington · 发表于：The Journal of Infectious Diseases · 年份：2021 · DOI：10.1093/infdis/jiab275 · 被引用次数：8 · 研究领域：Prenatal Screening and Diagnostics、Reproductive System and Pregnancy、Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies

BACKGROUND: Placental malaria has been associated with increased cord blood maternal microchimerism (MMc), which in turn may affect susceptibility to malaria in the offspring. We sought to determine the impact of maternal peripheral Plasmodium falciparum parasitemia during pregnancy on MMc and to determine whether maternal cells expand during primary parasitemia in the offspring. METHODS: We conducted a nested cohort study of maternal-infant pairs from a prior pregnancy malaria chemoprevention study. Maternal microchimerism was measured by quantitative polymerase chain reaction targeting a maternal-specific marker in genomic DNA from cord blood, first P falciparum parasitemia, and preparasitemia. Logistic and negative binomial regression were used to assess the impact of maternal peripheral parasitemia, symptomatic malaria, and placental malaria on cord blood MMc. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess predictors of MMc during infancy. RESULTS: Early maternal parasitemia was associated with increased detection of cord blood MMc (adjusted odds ratio = 3.91, P = .03), whereas late parasitemia, symptomatic malaria, and placental malaria were not. The first parasitemia episode in the infant was not associated with increased MMc relative to preparasitemia. CONCLUSIONS: Maternal parasitemia early in pregnancy may increase the amount of MMc acquired by the fetus. Future work should investigate the impact of this MMc on immune responses in the offspring.