Given their precipitous encounter with the environment, newborn infants might be expected to possess abundant immunoprotective mechanisms. Paradoxically, their T cells display grossly impaired Th1 anti-bacterial and anti-viral responses. This study identifies factors produced by neonatal CD4 T cells when compared with adult naive CD4 T cells and highlights CXCL8 as a pivotal effector molecule in neonatal T cells. Using Affimetrix microarray we compared gene expression in cord blood derived CD4 T cells with naive CD4 T cells from adults after polyclonal stimulation.

The Affymetrix GeneChip Human Genome 1.0 ST array were used to define gene expression profiles in each of the CD4 T cell samples.