Gut immunity more developed before birth than previously thought
(PHYSorg.com Medicine & Health)

Most biology textbooks explain that the fetal immune system is largely undeveloped and that it learns after being exposed to the world at birth. New research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC Children`s Hospital of Pittsburgh challenges that paradigm, and provides the first comprehensive look at the immune system of the developing gut. The findings, published today in the journal Developmental Cell, show that the fetal gut has far more well-developed immune capabilities than previously thought.