Takahashi N, Nagamatsu T, Fujii T, et al. - Given that the majority of the infants born to mothers with autoimmune diseases are considered to be completely healthy, however, a thorough evaluation of the immunological conditions has never been performed, and therefore researchers undertook this study including 14 neonates born to mothers suffering from systemic autoimmune diseases, namely systemic lupus erythematosus, mixed connective tissue disease, Sjögren’s syndrome, rheumatoid arthritis, and systemic sclerosis, to investigate serum levels of 17 cytokines from the infants’ umbilical artery (UA) and vein (UV) and from the mothers’ peripheral blood, using a bead array system. Regardless of mothers’ autoimmune diseases, hypercytokinemia was detected in 11 neonates. Extremely high levels of serum cytokines were identified in 6 neonates. Between UA and UV, almost the same cytokine levels were reported, but a rise in serum cytokines was not evident in mothers’ blood samples. Neonates born to mothers with systemic autoimmune diseases frequently developed hypercytokinemia and sometimes developed a cytokine storm state. A possible link of growth restriction and non-reassuring fetal status with hypercytokinemia in utero was also suggested. Possibly, the source of origin of a high level of cytokines in cord blood is neither the mother nor the placenta but fetal immune tissues.