Changes of nerve growth factor in amniotic fluid and correlation with ventriculomegaly.

Objective: To detect the change of nerve growth factor (NGF) level in human amniotic fluid during gestation, and to explore the relationship between this change and fetal ventriculomegaly (VM).

Methods: The studied subjects (collected from 2004 to 2007) were divided into four groups, including the second-trimester pregnancy group (n=113), third-trimester pregnancy group (n=110), fetal cerebral VM group (n=12), and healthy control group (n=12) which matched with the VM group in gestational weeks. The amniotic fluid specimens were obtained during amniocentesis or cesarean section.

Effects of graded hypothermia on hypoxic-ischemic brain damage in the neonatal rat.

Objective: To investigate the effect of graded hypothermia on neuropathologic alterations of neonatal rat brain after exposed to hypoxic-ischemic insult at 37°C, 33°C, 31°C, and 28°C, respectively, and to observe the effect of hypothermia on 72-kDa heat shock protein (HSP72) expression after hypoxic-ischemic insult.

Methods: Seven days old Wistar rats were subjected to unilateral common carotid artery ligation followed by exposure to hypoxia in 8% oxygen for 2 hours at 37°C, 33°C, 31°C, and 28°C, respectively. The brain temperature was monitored indirectly by inserting a mini-thermocouple probe into the temporal muscle during hypoxia.

Effect of propentofylline on hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage in newborn rat.

Background: Studies showed that propentofylline enhances the action of adenosine and protects hippocampal neuronal damage against transient global cerebral ischaemia. Our study was to investigate the effect of propentofylline on hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage in neonatal rat.

Methods: Seven-day-old Wistar rats were subjected to unilateral common carotid artery ligation and hypoxia in oxygen 8 kPa for two hours at 37 degrees C.

Cerebral blood flow distribution and hypoxic-ischemic brain damage in newborn rats.

Objective: Our purpose was to assess the cerebral blood flow distribution and resulting grade of hypoxicischemic brain damage in newborn rats.

Methods: Seven-day-old Wistar rats (n = 75) underwent left common carotid artery ligation followed by 2 hours hypoxia (8% oxygen in nitrogen) at 33 degrees C. The control animals were exposed to hypoxia without ligation (n = 8).

Usefulness of percutaneous intracardiac administration of colored microspheres in measuring blood flow distribution to the brain in 7-day-old rats.

Objective: By using colored microsphere (CMS) technique in newborn rats, we explored the relationship between injection sites and blood flow distribution patterns in open-chest and in closed-chest models, with hopes that percutaneous left ventricle injection can be applicable to measure relative blood flow distribution to the brain.

Methods: Seven-day-old Wistar rats were used. In open-chest models (n = 30), we exposed the heart and injected CMS (15 microm diameter, 125000 spheres in 0.