Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T04:26:16.109Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chronic foetal hypoxaemia does not cause elevation of serum markers of brain injury

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2021

Camilla Omann*
Affiliation:
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
Kendall M. Lawrence
Affiliation:
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Mallory L. Hunt
Affiliation:
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA Division of Cardiovascular Surgery, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
James K. Moon
Affiliation:
The Center for Fetal Research, Department of Surgery, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Jamuna Buchanan
Affiliation:
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA The Center for Fetal Research, Department of Surgery, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Daniel J. Licht
Affiliation:
Division of Neurology, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Richard F. Ittenbach
Affiliation:
Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology and Department of Pediatrics, Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, USA
Patrick McGovern
Affiliation:
The Center for Fetal Research, Department of Surgery, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Jonathan M. Chen
Affiliation:
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Marcus Davey
Affiliation:
The Center for Fetal Research, Department of Surgery, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Vibeke E. Hjortdal
Affiliation:
Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark
Alan W. Flake
Affiliation:
The Center for Fetal Research, Department of Surgery, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
J. William Gaynor
Affiliation:
Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA
*
Address for correspondence: Camilla Omann, MD, Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Palle Juul-Jensens Boulevard 99, 8200Aarhus N, Denmark. Tel: +45 29401223. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Objectives:

The objective of this study was to investigate changes in serum biomarkers of acute brain injury, including white matter and astrocyte injury during chronic foetal hypoxaemia. We have previously shown histopathological changes in myelination and neuronal density in fetuses with chronic foetal hypoxaemia at a level consistent with CHD.

Methods:

Mid-gestation foetal sheep (110 ± 3 days gestation) were cannulated and attached to a pumpless, low-resistance oxygenator circuit, and incubated in a sterile fluid environment mimicking the intrauterine environment. Fetuses were maintained with an oxygen delivery of 20–25 ml/kg/min (normoxemia) or 14–16 ml/kg/min (hypoxaemia). Myelin Basic Protein and Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein serum levels in the two groups were assessed by ELISA at baseline and at 7, 14, and 21 days of support.

Results:

Based on overlapping 95% confidence intervals, there were no statistically significant differences in either Myelin Basic Protein or Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein serum levels between the normoxemic and hypoxemic groups, at any time point. No statistically significant correlations were observed between oxygen delivery and levels of Myelin Basic Protein and Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein.

Conclusion:

Chronic foetal hypoxaemia during mid-gestation is not associated with elevated serum levels of acute white matter (Myelin Basic Protein) or astrocyte injury (Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein), in this model. In conjunction with our previously reported findings, our data support the hypothesis that the brain dysmaturity with impaired myelination found in fetuses with chronic hypoxaemia is caused by disruption of normal developmental pathways rather than by direct cellular injury.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

Presented at the 34th EACTS Annual Meeting, Barcelona, Spain; October 9, 2020.

References

Sarrechia, I, Miatton, M, Francois, K, et al. Neurodevelopmental outcome after surgery for acyanotic congenital heart disease. Res Dev Disabil 2015; 45-46: 5868.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shillingford, AJ, Glanzman, MM, Ittenbach, RF, Clancy, RR, Gaynor, JW, Wernovsky, G. Inattention, hyperactivity, and school performance in a population of school-age children with complex congenital heart disease. Pediatrics 2008; 121: e759e767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gaynor, JW, Nord, AS, Wernovsky, G, et al. Apolipoprotein E genotype modifies the risk of behavior problems after infant cardiac surgery. Pediatrics. 2009; 124: 241250.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oster, ME, Watkins, S, Hill, KD, Knight, JH, Meyer, RE. Academic outcomes in children with congenital heart defects: a population-based cohort study. Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes 2017; 10: e003074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Limperopoulos, C, Tworetzky, W, McElhinney, DB, et al. Brain volume and metabolism in fetuses with congenital heart disease: evaluation with quantitative magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy. Circulation. 2010; 121: 2633.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Limperopoulos, C, Tworetzky, W, Newberger, JA, et al. Third-trimester volumetric brain growth is impaired in fetuses with congental heart disease. Circulation 2008; 118: 908.Google Scholar
Licht, DJ, Shera, DM, Clancy, RR, et al. Brain maturation is delayed in infants with complex congenital heart defects. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2009; 137: 529536. discussion 536-527.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, SP, McQuillen, PS, Hamrick, S, et al. Abnormal brain development in newborns with congenital heart disease. N Engl J Med. 2007; 357: 19281938.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sun, L, Macgowan, CK, Sled, JG, et al. Reduced fetal cerebral oxygen consumption is associated with smaller brain size in fetuses with congenital heart disease. Circulation. 2015; 131: 13131323.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Licht, DJ, Wang, J, Silvestre, DW, et al. Preoperative cerebral blood flow is diminished in neonates with severe congenital heart defects. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2004; 128: 841849.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Partridge, EA, Davey, MG, Hornick, MA, et al. An extra-uterine system to physiologically support the extreme premature lamb. Nat Commun 2017; 8: 15112.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawrence, KM, McGovern, PE, Mejaddam, A, et al. Chronic intrauterine hypoxia alters neurodevelopment in fetal sheep. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2019; 157: 19821991.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawrence, KM, McGovern, PE, Mejaddam, A, et al. Prenatal hypoxemia alters microglial morphology in fetal sheep. J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 2019; 159: 270277.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGovern, PE, Lawrence, K, Baumgarten, H, et al. Ex utero extracorporeal support as a model for fetal hypoxia and brain dysmaturity. Ann Thorac Surg. 2020; 109: 810819.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Volpe, JJ. Encephalopathy of congenital heart disease – destructive and developmental effects intertwined. J Pediatr. 2014; 164: 962964.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Volpe, JJ. The encephalopathy of prematurity—brain injury and impaired brain development inextricably intertwined. Semin Pediatr Neurol. 2009; 16: 167178.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prout, AJ, Wolf, MS, Fink, EL. Translating biomarkers from research to clinical use in pediatric neurocritical care: focus on traumatic brain injury and cardiac arrest. Curr Opin Pediatr. 2017; 29: 272279.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Topjian, AA, Lin, R, Morris, MC, et al. Neuron-specific enolase and S-100B are associated with neurologic outcome after pediatric cardiac arrest. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2009; 10: 479490.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lumpkins, KM, Bochicchio, GV, Keledjian, K, Simard, JM, McCunn, M, Scalea, T. Glial fibrillary acidic protein is highly correlated with brain injury. J Trauma 2008; 65: 778782. discussion 782-774.Google ScholarPubMed
Mondello, S, Kobeissy, F, Vestri, A, Hayes, RL, Kochanek, PM, Berger, RP. Serum concentrations of ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase-L1 and glial fibrillary acidic protein after pediatric traumatic brain injury. Sci Rep 2016; 6: 28203.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ennen, CS, Huisman, TA, Savage, WJ, et al. Glial fibrillary acidic protein as a biomarker for neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy treated with whole-body cooling. Am J Obstet Gynecol 2011; 205: 251 e251257.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Back, SA, Riddle, A, Dean, J, Hohimer, AR. The instrumented fetal sheep as a model of cerebral white matter injury in the premature infant. Neurotherapeutics. 2012; 9: 359370.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lawrence, KM, Hennessy-Strahs, S, McGovern, PE, et al. Fetal hypoxemia causes abnormal myocardial development in a preterm ex utero fetal ovine model. JCI Insight 2018; 3: 577.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGovern, PE, Hornick, MA, Mejaddam, AY, et al. Neurologic outcomes of the premature lamb in an extrauterine environment for neonatal development. J Pediatr Surg 2020; 55: 21152123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, CE, Keller-Wood, M. Current paradigms and new perspectives on fetal hypoxia: implications for fetal brain development in late gestation. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 2019; 317: R1R13.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Limperopoulos, C, Tworetzky, W, McElhinney, DB, et al. Brain volume and metabolism in fetuses with congenital heart disease: evaluation with quantitative magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy. Circulation. 2010; 121: 2633.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Miller, SP, McQuillen, PS, Hamrick, S, et al. Abnormal brain development in newborns with congenital heart disease.[see comment]. N Engl J Med. 2007; 357: 19281938.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, AA, Simic, N, Frndova, H, et al. Serum biomarkers help predict attention problems in critically Ill children with traumatic brain injury. Pediatr Crit Care Med. 2016; 17: 638648.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed