Each year, around 55,000 babies are born prematurely in the UK and sadly, around 1,000 will lose their lives.[1-5] Those who survive can face lifelong disabilities, including cerebral palsy, learning difficulties, blindness and hearing loss. Most preterm births happen spontaneously (naturally) and are often linked with inflammation and/or infection in the mother. Professor Rachel Tribe of King’s College London is aiming to develop a new cell therapy that can help prevent spontaneous preterm birth by modifying the mother’s immune and inflammatory responses during pregnancy. If successful, this innovative treatment approach could ultimately lead to better outcomes for many babies and their families.
This project is jointly funded by Action Medical Research and Borne.
How are children’s lives affected now?
Around one in every 13 babies in the UK is born before 37 weeks of pregnancy.1,2 Preterm birth is the leading cause of newborn death, and children who survive can often grow up with life-changing complications.
“When babies are born prematurely without any obvious explanation, it may be that problems with the mother’s immune response and the presence of inflammation and/or infection are involved,” says Professor Tribe.
During early pregnancy, the mother’s body must accept the baby in the womb, which involves suppressing her natural immune responses. Specialised cells in the womb lining – called human decidual stromal cells (hDSCs) – are known to play an important role in this process.
Current treatment options to prevent babies from being born too soon are very limited – and there’s an urgent need for effective ways to delay labour and improve outcomes. One promising approach involves modifying the mother’s immune and inflammatory responses during pregnancy, helping her body to accept the growing baby.
How could this research help?
“We aim to develop a novel treatment using hDSCs to suppress inflammation in the mother’s tissues, helping protect her baby from being born early,” says Professor Tribe.
Professor Tribe is collaborating with researchers in Sweden who have successfully isolated hDSCs from full-term placental tissue and tested their potential for treating other immune and inflammatory conditions in early-stage clinical trials. In previous research, her team showed that delivering hDSCs during pregnancy can lengthen the time to delivery in a laboratory model of preterm birth.
“We now plan to build on these initial results to assess whether this cell therapy can delay delivery and improve fetal survival in other laboratory models of preterm birth,” says Professor Tribe.
The team will also examine the effects of hDSC treatment on inflammation in the mother and baby, and refine the best dosage and timing of treatment to maximise its effectiveness at preventing preterm birth.
“This research will provide important evidence to support future clinical trials of this innovative cell therapy to assess its potential benefits in women at high risk of giving birth too soon,” says Professor Tribe.
Research table
Project details
| Project Leader | Professor Rachel M Tribe BSc PhD FPhysiol |
| Location | Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, School of Life Course and Population Sciences, King’s College London |
| Project Team |
Dr Natalie Suff BSc MBBCh MRCOG PhD
Dr Arti Mistry BSc PhD |
| Grant Awarded | |
| Grant Amount | £245,498 |
| Start Date | TBC |
| End Date | TBC |
| Duration | 30 months |
| Grant Code (GN number) | GN3063 |
References
- Office for National Statistics: Vital statistics in the UK: births, deaths and marriages -2021 [website accessed 12 March 2025]
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, Preterm labour and birth final scope April 2013: http://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/gid-cgwave0660/resources/preterm-labour-and-birth-final-scope2
- Office for National Statistics. Childhood mortality (death cohort tables) in England and Wales 2022. Table 4. https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/datasets/childmortalitystatisticschildhoodinfantandperinatalchildhoodinfantandperinatalmortalityinenglandandwales [website accessed 13 March 2025]
- National Records for Scotland. Vital Events Reference Tables 2023, Table 4.05: Infant death, by sex and cause, Scotland 2011 to 2023: https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/publications/vital-events-reference-tables-2023/# [website accessed 13 March 2025]
- Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency: Registrar General Annual Report 2022 Stillbirths and Infant Deaths, Table 4.8: Stillbirths and infant deaths by sex and cause, 2013 to 2022. https://www.nisra.gov.uk/publications/registrar-general-annual-report-2022-stillbirths-and-infant-deaths [website accessed 13 March 2025]
- World Health Organisation: Preterm birth: https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/preterm-birth [website accessed 18 March 2025}
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