The immune system of preterm infants: an overview
Mirjam J. Esser, Sanne J. C. M. Claassen, Melania P. Ebrahimi, Stan Berkers, Tim G. A. M. Wolfs, Magdalena A. Berkowska, Gertjan J. A. Driessen, Else M. Bijker · 2026
Read The immune system of preterm infants: an overview by Mirjam J. Esser, Sanne J. C. M. Claassen, Melania P. Ebrahimi, Stan Berkers, Tim G. A. M. Wolfs, Magdalena A. Berkowska, Gertjan J. A. Driessen, Else M. Bijker (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-13279218.txt.
Description
Mirjam J Esser and colleagues published a 2026 review of the immune system in preterm infants, the roughly 13 million babies born before 37 weeks each year. Prematurity is the leading cause of newborn death worldwide, and infections hit this group especially hard. The review compares the phenotype and function of immune cells in preterm and full-term babies, with particular attention to adaptive immunity, the branch that builds lasting memory of infections.
At birth, both the fast innate defenses and the adaptive arm look immature in preterm infants, antibody levels run low, and some vaccine parts provoke weaker responses. Those gaps help explain poor pathogen clearance in the first weeks of life. During the first year, maturation proceeds quickly and most differences from full-term infants shrink or vanish. The authors offer it as a framework for combined strategies, from infection prevention to vaccine timing, that match how these infants actually develop.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Mirjam J. Esser, Sanne J. C. M. Claassen, Melania P. Ebrahimi, Stan Berkers, Tim G. A. M. Wolfs, Magdalena A. Berkowska, Gertjan J. A. Driessen, Else M. Bijker |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 47 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |