New options for NEC

A team from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has mouse data showing that amniotic fluid can decrease the severity of necrotizing enterocolitis, a GI disease primarily seen in premature infants.¹ An important next step will be exploring in greater detail the precise factors in amniotic fluid that underlie the beneficial effect and turning those factors into medicines.

The effects of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) range from mucosal injury to necrosis and perforation. It is the leading cause of death from GI disease in premature infants and is thought to develop due to an abnormal response to the microbial flora that colonizes the GI tract...