2009 Southern Regional Meeting Abstracts
Session: Joint Plenary Poster Session and Reception
PRETERM EXPOSURE PATTERN ALTERS IMMUNOLOGICAL PATTERN, AN INTERIM ANALYSIS; PRELIMINARY DATA
Shah DS1, Nandakumar S2, Balasubrahmanyam G1, Chilakala S1, DeVoe M1, Kumaraguru U2. 1East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN and 2East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, TN.
Purpose of Study: To determine alteration in immunological profile of preterm infants born at or before 32 weeks of gestation and hospitalized for at least one month in NICU compare to term infants with normal nursery stay.
Methods Used: It was a prospective, blinded study of two group of infants; preterm and term infants between 9-12 months of chronological age. Preterm infants were eligible for study if they were born on or before 32 weeks gestation or earlier and had hospital stay in NICU for minimum of 28 days. Inclusion criteria for term babies were birth after 37 weeks of gestation and no stay in NICU.
Infants were recruited for study from Pediatric outpatient and NICU Follow up Clinic after IRB approval. Infant's blood was collected, labeled randomly and transported to research lab where it was processed and stored after centrifugation. After 20 of total 40 infants recruited; interim analysis was done as follows. Whole blood was tested with Simulttest followed by flow cytometry analysis. T cell, B cell, CD4 cell, CD8 cell, activated T cell and NK cells were calculated from 10000 events by flow cytometry. Result was analyzed by Graphpad prism for statistical significance by student T test.
Summary of Results: Total of 20 recruited infants, 9 infants were preterm and 11 were term infants. Both groups were of comparable chronological age, weight and vaccination status and devoid of any acute infection in last one month. Test results of immunological profile were shown as in Table . There is no difference between two groups in regard to number of T cell, B cell, CD4 and CD8 cell. However, there was a significant difference in activated T cell population between the two groups (P<0.05). Increase in NK cells was also observed in preterm but was not statistically significant.
Conclusions: Study result shows there is a "Qualitative" difference in T cell population of preterm infants of more than 28 days of NICU stay compared to term infants even later in Infancy.
Immunological Profile of Preterm and Term Infants
| T- Cell | B-Cell | CD-4 Cell | CD-8 Cell | Activated T- Cell | NK-Cell | | Preterm Infants | 63.7 (8.4) | 18.5 (7.6) | 47.2 (10.1) | 20.5 (5.1) | 1.7 (1.1) | 13.1 (6.2) | | Term Infants | 63.1 (10.2) | 19.6 (8.7) | 46.6 (8.2) | 21.1 (5.7) | 0.9 (0.4) | 10.9 (4.3) |
Mean (S.D.)
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