Abstract
We enumerated conventional and innate lymphocyte populations in neonates with neonatal encephalopathy (NE), school-age children post-NE, children with cerebral palsy and age-matched controls. Using flow cytometry, we demonstrate alterations in circulating T, B and natural killer cell numbers. Invariant natural killer T cell and V delta 2(+) gamma delta T cell numbers and frequencies were strikingly higher in neonates with NE, children post-NE and children with cerebral palsy compared to age-matched controls, whereas mucosal-associated invariant T cells and V delta 1 T cells were depleted from children with cerebral palsy. Upon stimulation ex vivo, T cells, natural killer cells and V delta 2 T cells from neonates with NE more readily produced inflammatory cytokines than their counterparts from healthy neonates, suggesting that they were previously primed or activated. Thus, innate and conventional lymphocytes are numerically and functionally altered in neonates with NE and these changes may persist into school-age.