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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jul 30.
Published in final edited form as: Cell. 2015 Jul 23;162(3):505–515. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2015.07.006

Figure 7. Cross-generational reproductive fitness enforced by vertically transferred microchimeric maternal cells in eutherian placental mammals.

Figure 7

In traditional Mendelian genetics (top), pregnancies among female offspring are equally susceptible to fetal wastage or other complications stemming from disruptions in fetal tolerance regardless of paternal MHC haplotype specificity. Comparatively, persistent postnatal maintenance of tolerogenic microchimeric maternal cells in female offspring promotes cross-generational reproductive fitness (bottom) by selectively protecting against fetal wastage during next generation pregnancies sired by males with shared overlapping NIMA specificity.