Department of Neonatology, Shanghai Children's Hospital, School of medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No. 355, Luding Road, Shanghai, 200062, People's Republic of China.
BMC Pediatr. 2022 Jun 10;22(1):336. doi: 10.1186/s12887-022-03372-5.
Sepsis-associated encephalopathy (SAE) is characterized by brain dysfunction during sepsis, without central nervous system infection. Here, we explored the molecular basis of brain injury in preterm infants with SAE. From Jan 2016 to Dec 2019, a total of 20 preterm infants were hospitalized in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of our hospital, including 10 preterm infants with SAE (SAE group) and 10 preterm infants without encephalopathy after sepsis (no SAE group). Among the 20 premature infants, there were 12 males and 8 females, with mean gestational age 31.0 ± 2.46 weeks, 7 cases with birth weight ≤ 1500 g and 13 cases with birth weight 1500-2500 g. Blood cultures were negative in 6 cases and positive in 14 cases, including 10 cases of Gram-negative and 4 cases of Gram-positive bacteria, respectively. Expression levels of messenger RNA (mRNA) and MicroRNA (miRNA) were analyzed in peripheral blood samples from both groups during sepsis. There were 1858 upregulated and 2226 downregulated mRNAs [fold-change (FC) > |2|, p < 0.05], and 322 upregulated and 160 downregulated miRNAs (FC > |2|, p < 0.05), respectively, in the SAE group compared with the no SAE group. Expression levels of miRNA-1197 [95% confidence intervals (CI), 0.042 to 0.166] were 6.03-fold higher in the SAE group than the no SAE group, while those of miRNA-485-5p (95% CI, 0.064 to 0.024) were lower (0.31-fold). Both high expression of miRNA-1197 and low expression of miRNA-485-5p may be associated with pathogenic alteration of the oxidative respiratory chain and energy metabolism in preterm infants with SAE.
脓毒症相关性脑病（SAE）的特征是脓毒症期间出现脑功能障碍，而无中枢神经系统感染。在这里，我们探讨了患有 SAE 的早产儿脑损伤的分子基础。 2016 年 1 月至 2019 年 12 月，共有 20 名早产儿在我院新生儿重症监护病房（NICU）住院，其中 10 名早产儿患有 SAE（SAE 组），10 名早产儿患有脓毒症后无脑病（无 SAE 组）。在这 20 名早产儿中，有 12 名男性和 8 名女性，平均胎龄为 31.0±2.46 周，7 例出生体重≤1500g，13 例出生体重为 1500-2500g。6 例血培养阴性，14 例阳性，其中革兰阴性菌 10 例，革兰阳性菌 4 例。在脓毒症期间，分析了两组外周血样本中的信使 RNA（mRNA）和 MicroRNA（miRNA）的表达水平。与无 SAE 组相比，SAE 组有 1858 个上调和 2226 个下调的 mRNAs [fold-change（FC）> |2|，p < 0.05]，322 个上调和 160 个下调的 miRNAs（FC> |2|，p < 0.05）。与无 SAE 组相比，SAE 组 miRNA-1197 的表达水平[95%置信区间（CI），0.042 至 0.166]高 6.03 倍，miRNA-485-5p 的表达水平低（0.31 倍）（95% CI，0.064 至 0.024）。miRNA-1197 的高表达和 miRNA-485-5p 的低表达可能与 SAE 早产儿氧化呼吸链和能量代谢的致病改变有关。
