Mooney-Leber Sean M, Spielmann Stephanie S, Brummelte Susanne
Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan.
Dev Psychobiol. 2018 Dec;60(8):963-974. doi: 10.1002/dev.21777. Epub 2018 Oct 4.
Preterm infants are exposed to many stressors while in the neonatal intensive care unit including pain and reduced maternal care. Both stressors can have a profound negative impact on brain development, and the present study sought to investigate some of the biological mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. Rat pups underwent a series of repetitive needle pokes and/or reduced maternal care through a novel tea-ball infuser encapsulation model during the first four days of life. On postnatal day four, pups were sacrificed and serum was analyzed for corticosterone, while brains were tested for various neurotransmitters and brain metabolites through magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We found that exposure to maternal isolation and neonatal pain produced an increase in serum corticosterone but decreased glutamate levels in the hippocampus and frontal cortex. These alterations in stress responding and neurochemistry in response to the early-life stressors may help explain some of the negative outcomes seen in preterm infants.
早产儿在新生儿重症监护病房会面临许多应激源，包括疼痛和母亲照料减少。这两种应激源都会对大脑发育产生深远的负面影响，本研究旨在探究这一现象背后的一些生物学机制。在出生后的头四天，通过一种新型茶包注入器封装模型，对幼鼠进行一系列重复性针刺和/或减少母亲照料。在出生后第四天，处死幼鼠，分析血清中的皮质酮，同时通过磁共振波谱法检测大脑中的各种神经递质和脑代谢物。我们发现，经历母亲隔离和新生儿疼痛会使血清皮质酮增加，但海马体和额叶皮质中的谷氨酸水平降低。这些因早期生活应激源而导致的应激反应和神经化学变化，可能有助于解释早产儿出现的一些负面后果。
