Phagocytic, opsonic and immunoglobulin studies in newborns.

Despite improved diagnositc and therapeutic measures, neonatal septicemia continues to be a major clinical problem. Improvement in the management of the septic neonate should result from application of the increasing information being learned of the neonatal host defense mechanisms. The earlier concept that the neonate was "immunologically null" can now be discarded. Evidence summarized in this review has established that the neonate can marshal an immune response to most antigens and infectious agents.A further major advance in recent years has been in understanding of the inflammatory response in the neonate, which includes such activities as chemotaxis, phagocytosis and bactericidal killing of ingested bacteria by phagocytes.