Low Birth Weight (LBW) newborns (with weight less than 2500g) suffer a higher frequency and severity of microbial infection than normal birth weight (NBW) newborns. Morbidity and mortality of LBW infants due to infectious diseases are known to be high and it has been associated with compromised immune functions, however, the complete understanding of the cause is lacking. We, therefore, conducted a gene expression study to identify all the defective pathways and functions in the LBW newborns using DNA microarray. RNA were isolated from the umbilical cord blood of the NBW and LBW newborns and processed for chip hybridisation. Our results suggest down-regulation of genes participating in several canonical pathways vital in the defense response against microbes and perpetuation of immune responses. Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and Interferon signaling appear to be most significantly impacted pathways. The information generated from this study may help in depth understanding of the cause of higher frequency of infections in LBW and thus, in turn help devise better therapeutic interventions.

Total 12 subjects were included in the study. 4 NBW newborns umblical cord blood samples served as control and 8 LBW newborns umblical cord blood samples were treated as the experimental samples for the study.