Maternal immune response to UTI, not bacteria, drives preterm birth risk

For generations, medicine has watched urinary tract infections hasten the arrival of premature infants without fully understanding why. A team at Baylor College of Medicine has now traced the harm not to the invading bacteria, but to the mother's own immune system — an excessive inflammatory response that, when left unchecked, can trigger labor weeks too soon. In a finding that bridges mouse models and human pregnancies, researchers have identified specific immune signals that may one day allow doctors to predict and prevent one of the world's leading causes of infant death.