To determine if the expression of negative regulators was in part responsible for the highly significant lower fold IL-8 mRNA and protein expression in response to inflammatory stimuli in fetal vs. NEC-cells (Figure 4A), knockdown experiments in fetal cells were performed with A-20 and TOLLIP specific siRNA prior to treatment with Pam3Cys (10 μg/ml) a TLR-2 ligand. This evidence concerns the gene TLR2 and necrotizing enterocolitis.