Verification of the genomic identity of candidate microchimeric cells

Abstract

Microchimerism has been studied in the context of a variety of diseases which include autoimmune diseases (such as systemic sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus and autoimmune thyroid diseases), cancer (e.g., of the cervix, thyroid gland, lung, breast), tissue repair, transplantation and transfusion. It may become relevant in the context of cell-based noninvasive prenatal diagnosis. But how to safely identify individual microchimeric cells? This is a nontrivial question, for which a solution has recently been suggested. © 2011 Landes Bioscience.