Jump to full article: Medical News TODAY(UK), 2008-04-07
Intro: US researchers report that exposure to cigarette smoke inhibits innate gene expression and impairs alveolar growth in neonatal mice.
Sharon McGrath-Morrow from John Hopkin Medical Institute wrote in the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology that their findings may in part explain the increased incidence of respiratory symptoms in infants and children exposed to cigarette smoke.
Infants exposed to cigarette smoke are at higher risk for sudden infant death syndrome, lower respiratory tract infections, and small airway disease, compared with infants not exposed to cigarette smoke, suggesting that perinatal life represents a period of vulnerability during which exposure to cigarette smoke may impair lung immunity and lung growth.
To investigate the effects of cigarette smoke exposure on the neonatal lung, the researchers exposed neonatal mice to cigarette smoke for the first 2 weeks of life.
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