Antenatal Infection Compromises Post-Natal Growth And Lung Development In The Premature Baby

Main Category: Pediatrics / Children's Health
Also Included In: Respiratory / Asthma;  Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 27 Nov 2008 - 3:00 PST

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Christèle Gras-Le Guen (Hôpital Mère Enfant CHU Nantes, France) and colleagues report an experimental work in the rabbit in order to confirm an association, previously reported in humans, between antenatal infection and post-natal bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), the most serious respiratory disease in premature babies.

This study has been conducted in an experimental model of Escherichia coli antenatal infection in the rabbit. Pregnant rabbits were infected 3-4 days before the end of gestation and were treated by antibiotics (ceftriaxone) six hours after inoculation. The presence of BPD was assessed by histological and morphometric methods in pups between 0 and 15 days of life.

The authors have been able to reproduce, in pups born from infected mothers, the alveolar growth arrest typically observed in human BPD. Moreover, they show that post-natal growth in these newborns was altered as soon as five days after birth.

Early maternal antibiotherapy sterilises the materno-fetal infection but fails to preserve normal alveolarisation. The relationship between antenatal infection and the impaired post-natal growth needs to be investigated.

This experimental model of BPD reproducing morphometric features of impaired alveolarisation may be useful for the exploration the underlying mechanisms and to develop strategies to preserve or restore alveolarisation.

TITLE OF THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Antenatal infection in the rabbit impairs post-natal growth and lung alveolarisation.

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