From left: Benjamin Lear and Christopher Lear
A paper titled ‘Tumour necrosis factor blockade after asphyxia in fetal sheep ameliorates cystic white matter injury’ was recently published in the Brain Journal by the Fetal Physiology and Neuroscience Group. The paper was written by Christopher A Lear, Benjamin A Lear, Joanne O Davidson, Jialin Sae-Jiw, Johanna M Lloyd, Simerdeep K Dhillon, Alistair J Gunn, and Laura Bennet. Christopher Lear and Benjamin Lear are the joint first authors of this study.
Over a third of cerebral palsy cases are linked to being born extremely prematurely. Clinical studies have shown that severe injury often appears many weeks after birth. In this study, the team showed in preterm fetal sheep that cystic white matter injury developed at 2-3 weeks after oxygen deprivation and was preceded by intense local microglial infiltration. Infusions of the well-established anti-inflammatory drug, Etanercept, starting three days after oxygen deprivation almost completely prevented the severe white matter injury after three weeks of recovery and improved overall white matter maturation. This is the first evidence that there is a treatment protocol that may prevent severe preterm brain injury.
Read the journal article here.