Of Mice And Babies: New Animal Model Links Blood Transfusions to Dangerous Digestive Disease in Preemies

Physicians have long suspected that red blood cell transfusions given to premature infants with anemia may put them in danger of developing necrotizing enterocolitis, a potentially lethal inflammatory disease of the intestines. However, solid evidence for the connection has been difficult to obtain in part because of the lack of a practical animal model able to accurately represent what physically occurs when a baby gets NEC.