A new study found that the immune system of new born babies is stronger than previously believed.

The study was conducted by researchers from King's College London. Our immune system has several types of immune cells which play an important role in our defense against infections. These cells include neutrophils and lymphocytes: B cells which produce antibodies, and T cells that target cells infected with viruses and microbes. Until now, researcher thought that newborns have an immature immune system that doesn't trigger the same inflammatory response normally seen in adults. Although babies need to protect themselves from the harmful pathogens they are exposed to from birth, it was thought that their T cells were suppressed to some extent to prevent inflammatory damage to the developing child.

Researchers found that newborn immune T cells may have the ability to trigger an inflammatory response to bacteria. The researchers also noted that T cells in newborn babies are largely different to those in adults, it is not because they are immunosuppressed; rather, they manufacture a potent anti-bacterial molecule known as IL8 that has not previously been considered a major product of T cells and that activates neutrophils to attack the body's foreign invaders.

"We found that babies have an in-built anti-bacterial defense mechanism that works differently to adults, but nevertheless may be effective in protecting them," Dr Deena Gibbons, lead author in the Department of Immunobiology at King's College London, said in a press statement. "This may also be a mechanism by which the baby protects itself in the womb from infections of the mother. The next stage of our work will be to better understand the pathways that result in the immune cells of newborns being so different to those in adults."

Findings were published online in the journal Nature Medicine.