The Journal of Theoretical Fimpology. Volume 1, Issue 2: e-20120609-1-2-3. May 18, 2013 (www.fimpology.com)
Shu-dong Yin
ORCID 0009-0005-8661-6889
Cory H. E. R. & C. Inc., Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Email: [email protected]
Abstract
The survival of grafts at the individual macroorganism level involves in a complicate tolerogenic mechanism. In humans, the quadruple relation of fetus, postnatal offspring, mother and biological father has been revealed to associate with tolerogenic mechanisms of clinical transplantation, among which, the model of maternal-to-fetal cell transmission mediated tolerance to noninherited maternal antigens (NIMAs) was once highlighted. However, the NIMAs-centric theory alone cannot account for the birth order effect and the NIMA paradox. Recently, six models of pregnancy-associated eukaryotic cell transmissions were summarized: fetus-to-maternal cell transmission (FMCT), maternal-to-fetal cell transmission (MFCT), gestation-associated fetus-to-fetus cell transmission (FFCT), breastmilk and breastfeeding-mediated maternal-to-infant cell transmission (MICT), breastmilk and breastfeeding-mediated fetus-to-infant allogenic or inter-sibling cell transmission (FICT), and fetus-breastmilk-breastfeeding-infant-cells cycle (FBBIC Cycle). Based on the above advance, the author proposes a novel theoretical model called noninherited-paternal-antigen (NIPA)-centric model (NIPA-CM) for understanding the birth order and sibship size effect in transplantation immunology. NIPA-CM illustrates that FFCT and FICT may play a role in transferring NIPAs for introducing sibling tolerance to them; and moreover, the variation of inter-sibling tolerance to NIPAs may depend on both birth order and sibship size.