Abstract
Objective
We documented the immunological profile of neonates and mothers, and lymphocyte subsets at birth.
Methods
Consecutively born preterm neonates (26 to 31 weeks gestation) at our level III neonatal unit, fulfilling the inclusion criteria were enrolled. Immunoglobulin levels were assessed in maternal blood and in cord blood along with T cell subsets.
Results
A total of 115 neonates were enrolled. The mean cord levels for IgG, IgM and IgA, respectively were 5.34, 0.10 and 0.04 g/L and of B, T, NK and NK-T cells were 14%, 71%, 10% and 1%, respectively of total lymphocyte population. Cord IgG and IgA levels showed a significantly rising trend with increasing gestation (P=0.005 and 0.02, respectively) but not IgM and T cell subsets. Maternal immunoglobulins were similar in all gestations.
Conclusion
The cord IgG and IgA increased with increasing gestation but not IgM in neonates.
Electronic Supplementary Material
Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at 10.1007/s13312-022-2470-0.
Keywords: B cells, Gestation, NK-T cells, T cells
Electronic supplementary material
Funding
None
Footnotes
Note
Additional material related to this study is available with the online version at www.indianpediatrics.net
Ethics clearance
Approved by the institutional ethics committee no. NK/3996/MD; dated June 28, 2019.
Contributors
KM, RS: conceived the idea of this study; RS, KM, AR, VS, SS: involved in formulating the protocol of this study; RS: collected the samples for this study. The samples were processed in the laboratory under guidance of AR and SS. RS, KM, AR, VS, SS were involved in the writing of this manuscript. All authors approved the final version of manuscript, and are accountable for all aspects related to the study.
Competing interests
None stated.
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