EDITORStudies of human neonate granulopoiesis have been hampered by the lack of a marker of overall neutrophil cell mass. Assumptions about neonate granulopoiesis have therefore largely been extrapolated from rat data. Direct measurement of total neutrophil cell mass (in terms of neutrophils per g body weight) in newborn rats has shown that they have about one quarter the neutrophil mass of adult animals and that their neutrophil mass increases to adult levels by the time they are 4 weeks old.¹ In addition, newborn rodents do not have the reserve pool of quiescent granulocyte progenitors, as found in adults, to recruit into production during sepsis. Circumstantial evidence for a similar immaturity of neutrophil production in human neonates comes from the low proportion of quiescent progenitors in cord blood² and the frequent occurrence of postnatal neutropenia in preterm infants. Some additional insight comes from a study of mid-trimester abortuses,³ which showed . . . [Full text of this article]