Fig. 1: Neonates who develop NEC are characterized by a lower frequency of Tregs and actTregs as compared to control neonates with (FI) or without (FeedTol) feeding intolerance, at early and late time points post birth.
From: Reduction in regulatory T cells in preterm newborns is associated with necrotizing enterocolitis
a, b Representative plots (a) and cumulative analysis (b) showing the percentages of Tregs (CD127low CD25high) in gated CD4+ cells, estimated at different time points in peripheral blood of preterm neonates who develop NEC (n = 6) and in controls with feeding intolerance (FI, n = 19) or tolerance (FeedTol, n = 28). Blood samples were collected from each neonate at 0–3 (T0), 7–10 (T1), or 28–31 (T2) days post birth. c, d Representative plots (c) and cumulative analysis (d) showing the percentages of CD45RAlowFOXP3high actTregs (heavy thickness square) in gated Tregs (identified as CD127low CD25high CD4 T cells), in the same samples as above. Numbers indicate the percentages of each subset. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, by Mann–Whitney test, between subgroups. *p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001, ****p < 0.0001, by Wilcoxon matched-paired test, between time points within each subgroup. In each analysis, only data from neonates whose samples were available at least at both T0 and T1 were included.
