Gene expression and growth restriction

Mandò and coinvestigators offer the first study investigating SNAT2 (neutral amino acid transporter) expression and regulation mechanisms in human placentas from pregnancies with intrauterine growth restriction. It confirms previous results obtained in rats and cell cultures supporting a fundamental role for SNAT2 in fetal growth and well-being.

See SNAT2 expression and regulation in human growth-restricted placentas

Sensorineural hearing loss

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and mutation of the gap junction β-2 gene (GJB2) are important causes of sensorineural hearing loss. The findings by Li and colleagues, who used GJB2 sequencing and tested auditory brainstem response in 159 newborns, suggest that congenital CMV infection does not coincide with GJB2 mutation.

See Does congenital cytomegalovirus infection lead to hearing loss by inducing mutation of the GJB2 gene?

Vaccination and sickle cell disease

Children with sickle cell disease (SCD) are susceptible to recurrent infections that necessitate frequent vaccinations. Given the altered baseline immunity and proinflammatory state associated with SCD, Szczepanek and colleagues found that transgenic SCD mice have a dysregulated immune response to vaccination. This suggests that the relative safety and immunogenicity of vaccination in the context of SCD warrant further study.

See Transgenic sickle cell disease mice have high mortality and dysregulated immune responses after vaccination

Reversing pulmonary hypertension

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is a steroid hormone that prevents and reverses pulmonary hypertension (PH) in adult rats. Dumas de la Roque and colleagues investigated its effect in a rat-pup model of chronic hypoxic PH. Their results indicate that DHEA prevents PH in infant rats and may therefore be clinically relevant in newborns.

See Beneficial effect of dehydroepiandrosterone on pulmonary hypertension in a rodent model of pulmonary hypertension in infants

Microcirculation and hypotension

Hypotension is a common phenomenon in preterm infants and is associated with neonatal morbidity and mortality. Schwepcke et al. studied microcirculation in extremely-low-birth-weight infants in order to understand the relationship between blood pressure and skin perfusion. Hypotensive infants had higher functional vessel density, possibly due to loss of microvascular tone leading to vasodilation and flow redistribution.

See Microcirculatory mechanisms in postnatal hypotension affecting premature infants

fMRI in preterm children

Extremely preterm (EPT) children often have problems with working memory and selective attention when they reach school age. Griffiths and coauthors compared blood oxygen level–dependent (BOLD) activation on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) during a selective attention–working memory task between EPT children and term-born controls at 11 years of age. The BOLD pattern displayed less activation in the preterm group than in the control group, particularly when the cognitive load was increased.

See fMRI: blood oxygen level–dependent activation during a working memory–selective attention task in children born extremely preterm