The love-shaper: role of the foetus in modulating mother-child attachment through stem cell migration to the maternal brain

Abstract

Background

Foetal PAPCs (pregnancy-associated progenitor cells) begin to cross the placenta in a scheduled manner from early pregnancy and colonise many maternal organs, both in mammals and humans, during each pregnancy. The maternal limbic system appears to be colonised with a 100% frequency when compared with other maternal organs. Once they arrive in the limbic system, foetal PAPCs differentiate into neurons and glial cells, resulting in the formation of new synapses with and among maternal neurons. This process is accompanied by major structural neurobiological alterations orchestrated by hormonal changes characteristic of gestation and involves the limbic system, reward areas, and other closely connected brain structures, i.e., the same areas colonised by foetal PAPCs.

Objective

To correlate findings regarding microscopic and macroscopic changes induced by foetal stem cell migration into the maternal limbic system and hormonal surges during pregnancy with the biological basis of mother-child attachment dynamics, with a focus on the clinical implications this discovery has for normal, complicated, and assisted pregnancies.

Evidence review

A literature review of evidence regarding the neuroanatomical correlation between the targeted, colonising migration of foetal PAPCs into the maternal brain and the structural neurobiological alterations within the affective areas related to attachment and reward was conducted.

Results and Conclusions

These findings suggest a synergic effect of cellular and morphological changes, with a common biological aim of conferring an adaptive advantage in motherhood, and with the foetus playing a surprisingly active role in modulating the mother’s ability to love and care for it.

SHORT CONDENSATION

Fetal stem cells migration into the maternal brain and the morphological alterations of the latter occurring during pregnancy appear to confer an adaptive advantage in motherhood, with the fetus playing a surprisingly active role in modulating the mother's ability to love and care for it.

摘要

背景：胎儿PAPCs（妊娠相关祖细胞）从妊娠早期开始以特定的方式穿过胎盘, 并在每次妊娠期间在哺乳动物和人类的许多母体器官中定殖。与其他母体器官相比, 其在母体边缘系统似乎以100%的频率定植。一旦它们到达边缘系统, 胎儿妊娠相关祖细胞分化为神经元和神经胶质细胞, 导致胎儿与母体神经元和母体神经元之间形成新的突触。这个过程伴随着由妊娠特征的激素变化协调的主要结构神经生物学改变, 并且涉及边缘系统、奖赏区和其他紧密连接的脑结构, 即：胎儿同样的区域也被PAPC占据。

目的：胎儿干细胞迁移到母体边缘系统, 同时妊娠期间激素激增引起的微观和宏观变化与母子依恋动力学的生物学基础相关, 重点关注这一发现对正常、复杂和辅助妊娠的临床意义。

证据审查：进行了文献综述的证据之间的神经解剖学的相关性的目标, 迁移的胎儿PAPCs到母体大脑和结构神经生物学的改变内的情感领域的附件和奖励。

结果和结论：这些研究结果表明, 细胞和形态变化的协同效应, 其共同的生物学目的是赋予母亲一种适应性优势, 胎儿在调节母亲爱和照顾胎儿的能力方面发挥着令人惊讶的积极作用。

小结

胎儿干细胞迁移到母亲的大脑, 后者在怀孕期间发生的形态学改变似乎赋予母亲的适应性优势, 胎儿在调节母亲的爱和照顾它的能力方面发挥着令人惊讶的积极作用。

Keywords:

• Limbic system
• mother-child attachment
• pregnancy associated progenitor cells (PAPCs)
• pregnancy
• stem cell migration
• microchimerism

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Massimo Tartagni (University Hospital Policlinic of Bari, Italy) and Dr. Irene Graf-Rüegg (Spitalregion Fürstenland Toggenburg, Wil, Switzerland) for the support and shared enthusiasm about this topic.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Figure 1. Key point of PAPCs passage from the foetus to the mother in physiologic and pathologic conditions, with the perspective of potential affective attachment dynamics modulation.