Genetics of perinatal brain injury in the preterm infant.

Perinatal neuroprotection

Fetal or neonatal brain injury can result in lifelong neurologic disability. The most significant risk factor for perinatal brain injury is prematurity; however, in absolute numbers, full-term infants represent the majority of affected children. Research on strategies to prevent or mitigate the impact of perinatal brain injury ("perinatal neuroprotection") has established the mitigating roles o...

Perinatal brain injury in preterm infants and later neurobehavioral function.

Complement C5a is present in CSF of human newborns and is elevated in association with preterm birth

Neuroinflammation contributes to developmental brain injury associated with preterm birth, but the mediators that drive it are incompletely understood. Previous studies have shown that complement C5a is present and injurious in the brains of foetal mice exposed to preterm labour. Here, we demonstrate that C5a is present in the cerebrospinal fluid of newborn human infants and that levels are ele...

Postnatal growth and development in the preterm and small for gestational age infant.

A clear relationship exists between undernutrition, poorer growth and poor development in term and preterm infants. However, preterm infants are at greater risk than term infants. Undernutrition is more common and 'programmed' growth rates are almost six times faster. Thus, even short periods of nutritional deprivation may have significant effects. Recent advances have led to an improvement in ...

Perinatal risk factors altering regional brain structure in the preterm infant.

Neuroanatomical structure appears to be altered in preterm infants, but there has been little insight into the major perinatal risk factors associated with regional cerebral structural alterations. MR images were taken to quantitatively compare regional brain tissue volumes between term and preterm infants and to investigate associations between perinatal risk factors and regional neuroanatomic...