We assessed the effects of a single episode of maternal alcohol intoxication on fetal brain blood perfusion in three pregnant dams (baboons) at the 24th week of pregnancy using dynamic susceptibility contrast magnetic resonance imaging. After the oral administration of alcohol, there was a four-fold increase in the peak contrast concentrations in the fetal brain. In addition, we observed a two-...

Objective: The present study investigated possible neuroprotective effects of ethanolic extract of Tiliacora triandra leaf against cerebral ischemic-reperfusion injury in mice. Materials and Methods: Forty male Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) mice were randomly divided into five groups: (1) Sham + 10% Tween 80, (2) bilateral common carotid artery occlu...

Thyroid hormones influence brain development through regulation of gene expression mediated by nuclear receptors. Nuclear receptor concentration increases rapidly in the human fetus during the second trimester, a period of high sensitivity of the brain to thyroid hormones. In the rat, the equivalent period is the last quarter of pregnancy. However, little is known about thyroid hormone action i...

Recent research in identification of brain injury after trauma shows many possible blood biomarkers that may help identify the fetus and neonate with encephalopathy. Traumatic brain injury shares many common features with perinatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. Trauma has a hypoxic component, and one of the 1st physiologic consequences of moderate-severe traumatic brain injury is apnea. Trau...

The fetal brain is thought to have a role in the onset and progression of labor. Evidence also exists for fetal oxytocin release just before and during parturition. The present study examined whether activation of the fetal brain could induce uterine myometrial contractions through oxytocin receptors in the dam. Under urethane anesthesia, electrical stimulation of the hypothalamus of fetal rats...

Recent studies measuring fetal cerebral oxygen and glucose uptake in sheep indicate that the requirements of the fetal brain are comparable to those of the adult (Makowski, Schneider, Tsoulos, Colwill, Battaglia & Meschia, 1972). Since oxygen and glucose contents of arterial blood perfusing the fetal head are considerably less than in the adult animal, there would appear to be a low margin of s...