Study: Preterm Births Could Be Work Of Infection-Fighting Genes
(Chicago, IL) -- Preterm births could be the work of genes in mother and fetus that are programmed to fight infections. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health looked at 229 women and 179 premature babies in Chile, comparing them to 600 women who carried their babies to term. They found variations in DNA in the preterm baby and in the mother. The NIH says that in about a third of the preterm cases, the normally sterile amniotic fluid around the baby gets infected. A genetic trigger goes off in the mother and fetus with the DNA variant and they go into labor early to assure they both survive. Dr. Roberto Romero, the lead researcher, said the findings support the idea that preterm births are an evolutionary mechanism. Pre-term births are those that occur before 37 weeks of gestation, affecting about a half-million babies in the U.S. each year. Premature births cost the U.S. 26-billion dollars a year. |