FETAL cells that pass into the mother’s body are especially common in
diseased tissue. But it’s not clear whether the fetal cells are causing the
diseases. They might even be replacing damaged tissue.
Three years ago, researchers found that fetal cells can cross the placenta
and persist in the mother’s body for up to 27 years. Now Bharata Srivatsa and
his colleagues at the New England Medical Center in Boston have found the
descendants of such cells can not only differentiate to form specialised
tissues, but also seem to clump together in diseased tissue.
Foreign cells can trigger an immune…
