Microchimerism Fascinates Me !!

I wrote about microchimerism last December in a blog post after discovering the concept in a Christmas sermon written by an Ontario pastor. 

So when I saw this week that The Atlantic had just published a scientific article by Katherine J. Wu about the phenomenon I read it with great interest.

At my wedding I am with my two grandmothers and Dave’s grandmother. On the right is my maternal grandmother and I probably carry some of her cells in my body.

Microchimerism is the term to describe the fact we each carry cells around in our bodies from our mothers and our grandmothers and even great- grandmothers which we received from our mother when we were in her womb.

I have cells in my body from both of my sons

And………. if we are women who have experienced pregnancy we also have received cells from the children we have nurtured in our wombs. These cells remain in our bodies throughout our lives.

With my older son

This means I have cells from both my sons in my body.

I also have cells in my body from the three babies I miscarried because the cell transfer between the mother and the fetus she is carrying begins just four weeks after gestation. It gives me comfort somehow to know that I still carry cells from the three children I never got to meet.

With my siblings who may each carry some of my cells transferred to them through my mother

We may also carry cells in our bodies from children our mothers had before us since some of their cells will have transferred to her and she may have passed them on to us. 

With my mother’s older sister. I may carry some of her cells in my body.

Since I am the oldest child in my family this means my siblings might be carrying around some of my cells too and I may be carrying some of the cells from my mother’s older sister and brother. It is also possible that through my younger sister some of my cells have passed on to her two sons, my nephews.

Microchimerism means we have this cellular connection with a complex web of our family members.

And………in an earlier article in The Atlantic it suggests that the cells women have from the children they have carried during a pregnancy have a positive influence on their health- boosting their body’s ability to find and destroy cancer cells, heal wounds and lowering their risk of Alzheimer’s.

Scientists still have plenty to discover about microchimerism but many experts believe further study of the cells that are transferred between mother and child during pregnancy have much to teach us about our body’s health and about understanding ourselves and who we are. 

Other posts………

Why People Don’t Trust Scientists

Four Things You Can Do To Be More Empathetic

Face to Face With Our Human Ancestors

What’s Microchimerism and What Does It Have to Do With Christmas?

I learned about microchimerism for the first time in a sermon I read by Pastor Carol Penner given at First Mennonite Church in Vineland Ontario.

The Visitation by Raphael in the Prado in Madrid

Microchimerism occurs during pregnancy when cells from the mother are transferred to her fetus and………… this was something I never knew before…………… cells from the fetus are transferred to the mother.

In her sermon, Carol talked about how each of us has a unique DNA signature in all our cells. Our bodies can’t tolerate cells with someone else’s DNA which is why when people have organ transplants they have to take potent anti-rejection drugs for the rest of their lives to fool their bodies into accepting someone else’s cells.

But……. pregnancy is an amazing exception. A mother’s body not only tolerates the cells with foreign DNA that exist in the child growing in her uterus, she actually nurtures those cells and……….. her body does not destroy the baby’s cells with alien DNA that transfer into her body and remain there for the rest of her life.

Madonna del Parto by Piero della Francesca

The microchimeric cells that transfer from baby to mother don’t just sit in the mother’s body they grow and multiply and travel to many different places, especially to places where the mother’s body has been injured or damaged.

Scientists are discovering that if a woman gets cancer even decades after she has given birth, microchimerism cells from her child that remain in her body help fight cancer. This may explain why women who have been pregnant have a better prognosis when they get breast cancer.

Morning Star- photo by Kristyn Brown from her Modern Portrayal of Catholic Saints Project

But……….. and this was the most amazing thing for me……… the cell transfer from your child to you doesn’t happen when you give birth it happens in the very early stage of pregnancy.

So even if a woman loses a child that transfer of cells has already happened and the mother will carry the DNA of the child she lost for the rest of her life.

I had three lost pregnancies and even now forty years later, I find comfort in knowing that some cells from those children I never knew are still part of me and will be till I die.

Statue of a pregnant Mary I photographed in a cathedral in Evora Portugal

Carol Penner uses microchimerism in her sermon as an example of how amazing our created bodies are and how during pregnancy love is a two-way street between mother and child as they exchange cells that can nurture and heal. She thinks it is no accident that the Jesus of the Bible came into the world via the body of a pregnant woman.

I am reminded that during his life Jesus encouraged us to make love a two-way street running between God and us and our neighbour.

Other posts………

What If God Is Just a Stranger on a Bus?

She Was 13 Years Old

A Pregnant Mary and a Mary With Knives in Her Heart