Cerebellar injury and impaired function in a rabbit model of maternal inflammation induced neonatal brain injury.

Cerebellar injury and impaired function in a rabbit model of maternal inflammation induced neonatal brain injury. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2018 Jul 14;: Authors: Zhang Z, Narayan S, Su L, Al-Alawyat H, Liu J, Kannan S Abstract Cerebellum is involved in higher cognitive functions and plays important roles in neurological disorders. Cerebellar injury has been detected frequently in patients with preterm birth resulting in cognitive dysfunction later in life. Maternal infection and inflammation is associated with preterm birth and in neonatal brain injury. We have previously shown that intrauterine lipopolysaccharide (LPS) exposure induces white matter injury and microglial activation in the cerebral white matter tracts of neonatal rabbits, resulting in motor deficits consistent with the clinical findings of cerebral palsy (CP). Here we investigated whether intrauterine LPS exposure induced cerebellar inflammation and functional impairment. Timed-pregnant New Zealand white rabbits underwent a laparotomy on gestational day 28 (G28) and LPS (3200 EU, endotoxin group) was injected along the wall of the uterus as previously described. Controls did not receive surgical intervention. Kits born to control and endotoxin treated dams were euthanized on postnatal day (PND)1 (3 days post-injury) or PND5 (7 days post-injury) and cerebellum evaluated for presence of inflammation. The microglial morphology in cerebellar white matter areas was analyzed us...
Source: Neurobiology of Learning and Memory - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Neurobiol Learn Mem Source Type: research