Study on mice finds link between gut disease and brain injury in premature infants ANI | Updated: Jan 10, 2021 23:51 IST
Bern [Switzerland], January 10 (ANI): While working with mice, researchers have recently identified an immune system cell that travels from the gut to the brain and attacks cells rather than protect them as it normally does.
Physicians have long known that necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a potentially lethal inflammatory condition that destroys a premature infant s intestinal lining, is often connected to the development of severe brain injury in those infants who survive. However, the means by which the diseased intestine communicates its devastation to the newborn brain has remained largely unknown. The team s findings are published on Jan. 6, 2021, in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
Researchers identify the missing link between intestinal disease and brain injury in premature infants
Physicians have long known that necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a potentially lethal inflammatory condition that destroys a premature infant s intestinal lining, is often connected to the development of severe brain injury in those infants who survive. However, the means by which the diseased intestine communicates its devastation to the newborn brain has remained largely unknown.
Now, working with mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of Lausanne in Switzerland have identified that missing link an immune system cell that they say travels from the gut to the brain and attacks cells rather than protect them as it normally does.
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IMAGE: Photomicrographs demonstrating the impact of T lymphocytes (T cells) associated with the intestinal disease necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) on myelin a fatty material that surrounds and protects nerve cells . view more
Credit: C. Zhou, C. Sodhi and D. J. Hackam, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Physicians have long known that necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a potentially lethal inflammatory condition that destroys a premature infant s intestinal lining, is often connected to the development of severe brain injury in those infants who survive. However, the means by which the diseased intestine communicates its devastation to the newborn brain has remained largely unknown.
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