Study finds babies born prematurely can catch up their immune systems

New Delhi, Mar 10 (ANI): Babies born before 32 weeks' gestation can rapidly acquire some adult immune factors after birth, equivalent to that achieved by infants born at term, finds a recent research. The study, led by researchers from King's College London and Homerton University Hospital, has been published in the journal of Nature Communications. They found that all the infants' immune profiles progressed in a similar direction as they aged, regardless of the number of weeks of gestation at birth. Babies born at the earliest gestations -- before 28 weeks -- made a greater degree of movement over a similar time period to those born at later gestation. This suggests that preterm and term infants converge in a similar time frame, and immune development in all babies follows a set path after birth. Infection and infection-related complications are significant causes of death following preterm birth. Despite this, there is limited understanding of the development of the immune system in