Amniotic fluid 'may heal premature baby gut'

Amniotic fluid may hold the key to healing a fatal gut disease which affects premature babies, doctors say.

Severe inflammation, called necrotizing enterocolitis, can destroy the gut's tissues and lead to major organ failure.

Early animal tests, published in the journal Gut, showed that stem cells inside amniotic fluid could heal some of the damage and increase survival.

Further tests are still needed before it is tried in premature babies.

Far more testing would be required to work out if the treatment would work in babies and if it would be safe.

The stem cells would have to be taken from a donor as it would not be practical to store fluid from every birth, just in case. This means there is the risk of rejection.

As the stem cells are capable of becoming other types of cells there is also concern that they may pose a cancer risk.

However, in the future doctors hope they could harness a drug instead.