The phenotype and function of preterm infant monocytes: Implications for susceptibility to infection

Abstract

The extreme vulnerability of preterm infants to invasive microbial infections has been attributed to “immature” innate immune defenses. Monocytes are important innate immune sentinel cells critical in the defense against infection in blood. They achieve this via diverse mechanisms that include pathogen recognition receptor- and inflammasome-mediated detection of microbes, migration into infected tissues, and differentiation into Mφs and dendritic cells, initiation of the inflammatory cascade by free radicals and cytokine/chemokine production, pathogen clearance by phagocytosis and intracellular killing, and the removal of apoptotic cells. Relatively little is known about these cells in prete..