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Maternal Immunity, Pregnancy and Child's Health

A. Poletaev

Published 2012 in Unknown venue

ABSTRACT

Why do women live longer, than men? Is gender-connected lifespan related to woman’s ability to give a new life and partly depend on persistence of fetal cells in maternal tissues (microchimerism) [O'Donoghue, 2008]? On opposite side, childlessness leads to shortening of an average lifespan of women (http://www.moscowuniversityclub.ru/home.asp ?artId=5742). Some believes, that pregnancy (if happens not too often) leads to mobilizing of the biologic reserves in woman organism and improves the general health state. The phenomenon could be related to positive influence of fetal and placental trophic factors, and besides, to receiving of fetal stem-cell powerful reparative-regenerative potencies. In any case, if result of pregnancy is appearance of a new life (child) and strengthening of the woman’s health and longevity, then this phenomenon principally can not be considered from viewpoint of pathology. Accordingly, it seems quite incorrect to habitual using some of “fetal invasion”, “maternal aggression”, or similar terms, semantically associated with rather negative (pathological) events. Normal pregnancy should not be considered from confrontational positions, because such approach distort the biological sense of pregnancy. Maternal organism does not struggle against new life, but helps embryo with implantation, growth, development and maturation of the last. Moira Howes provides refined arguments for idea that maternal immune influences upon the fetus are principally lacking of aggressiveness, because during gestation mother and fetus are in essence not two but rather one complicated organism [Howes, 2007]. Pregnancy seems to be peculiar example of mutually beneficial co-assistance of two biological systems temporally functioning in frame of united super-organism.

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