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Updated: May 18, 2026
A Neonatal BALB/c Mouse Model of Necrotizing Enterocolitis
Published on: November 30, 2021
Increased fecal calprotectin in preterm infants with necrotizing enterocolitis
Gokhan Aydemir1, Ferhat Cekmez, I Asya Tanju
1Department ofPediatrics, GATA Medical Faculty, Istanbul, Turkey.
Background:
Necrotizing entrocolitis (NEC) remains a potentially fatal disease in premature infants despite the recent advances in neonatal care. It is a disease with a multifactorial etiology leading to the one common final pathway of necrosis and inflammmation of the neonatal intestine.
Methods:
Calprotectin is a calcium and zinc-binding protein in human neutrophils. Its concentration rises in various organic bowel diseases in adults and is resistant to degradation and has been proposed as a useful, simple, and rapid diagnostic method of inflammatory bowel disease that shows gastrointestinal inflammation in children and adults.
Results:
We found that infants with necrotizing enterocolitis had increased fecal calprotectin concentrations, and there was a correlation between calprotectin concentrations and severity of NEC.
Conclusions:
We concluded that fecal calprotectin is a useful marker for diagnosis and severity of NEC in preterm infants.
