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IMAGE: Photomicrographs demonstrating the impact of T lymphocytes (T cells) associated with the intestinal disease necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) on myelin a fatty material that surrounds and protects nerve cells . view more
Credit: C. Zhou, C. Sodhi and D. J. Hackam, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Physicians have long known that necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a potentially lethal inflammatory condition that destroys a premature infant s intestinal lining, is often connected to the development of severe brain injury in those infants who survive. However, the means by which the diseased intestine communicates its devastation to the newborn brain has remained largely unknown.