Heightened Neonatal Glucocorticoid Exposure Produces Selective And Rapid Cerebellar Neural Progenitor Cell Apoptotic Death

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Main Category: Neurology / Neuroscience
Also Included In: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 08 Jul 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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In this article, published in the journal Cell Death and Differentiation, we describe for the first time how the neonatal administration of glucocorticoids during a selective window of vulnerability produces brain degeneration and permanent neuropathology in the cerebellum of the developing rodent brain.

This finding is of interest because recent clinical research has found that the administration of glucocorticoids to treat respiratory dysfunction (the most common cause of death in prematurely born infants) associated with prematurity produces permanent neurodevelopmental deficits.

Based on the striking similarity between rodent and human cerebellar development, this research may suggest glucocorticoid exposure in prematurely born infants may lead to brain degeneration and permanent brain pathology in humans.

Written by Kevin Noguchi, Ph.D.
Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry

"Acute neonatal glucocorticoid exposure produces selective and rapid cerebellar neural progenitor cell apoptotic death"
Edited by JA Cidlowski
K K Noguchi, K C Walls, D F Wozniak, J W Olney, K A Roth and N B Farber
Cell Death and Differentiation advance online publication 4 July 2008; doi: 10.1038/cdd.2008.97
Click here to view abstract online.
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