Wednesday, 27.05.2026, Day 1
Time: 09:20 – 10:15
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Microchimerism in infertility and pregnancy loss
Henriette Svarre Nielsen
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
This talk will focus on microchimerism in infertility and pregnancy loss. The talk will give an overview of the presence of microchimerism in the endometrium and menstrual blood. The research leading to the hypothesis that microchimerism could play a role in infertility and pregnancy loss will be summarized and studies exploring the hypothesis will be presented
Women’s risk of cardiovascular disease after pregnancy complications: does a dysfunctional placenta and fetal microchimerism play a role?
Anne Cathrine Staff
University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Several common obstetric complications are associated with increased risk of future maternal cardiovascular disease (CVD). The risk is especially high after severe and repeated pregnancy complications. The mechanisms for the associations are not clear, but likely involve a synergy of preexisting risk factors (for the obstetric adverse outcome and cardiovascular disease) and risk factors mediated by the pregnancy complication. Common to many of these obstetric complications (e.g. preeclampsia and other hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, fetal growth restriction, preterm birth and gestational diabetes mellitus) is that the placenta is dysfunctional.
In preeclampsia, this placental dysfunction is closely linked to cellular syncytiotrophoblast stress, with an ensuing dysregulated release of proinflammatory and antiangiogenic proteins into maternal circulation. Preeclampsia is also associated with increased presence and quantity of long-lived fetal-origin cells in maternal circulation, termed fetal microchimerism. Our studies from human pregnancy have shown that the levels of fetal microchimeric cells in the mother correlates with placental dysfunction, as well as with severe maternal hypertension. Our human data also support a role for fetal-maternal histocompatibility in fetal microchimerism dynamics, both during pregnancy and postpartum.
The presentation will lay out the limited epidemiological background for linking fetal microchimerism to long-term maternal CVD. It will discuss how fetal microchimerism could potentially drive vascular inflammation in women and thereby contribute to premature maternal cardiovascular disease. Future and ongoing projects to improve the understanding of the role of fetal microchimerism in female cardiovascular health will be discussed.