IMR Press / FBS / Volume 2 / Issue 1 / DOI: 10.2741/S45

Frontiers in Bioscience-Scholar (FBS) is published by IMR Press from Volume 13 Issue 1 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Article
Biochemical markers of perinatal brain damage
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1 Department of Pediatrics, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
2 Department of Cardiac Surgery S. Donato Milanese University Hospital, S. Donato Milanese, Italy
3 Laboratory of Perinatal Medicine and Molecular Biology, and Department of Internal Medicine University “La Sapienza” Rome, Italy
4 Department of Biological Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Catania, Italy
5 Department of Pediatrics, Neuroscience and Cardiovascular Surgery, G. Gaslini Children’s Hospital University of Genoa, Genoa – Italy
6 Department of Fetal, Maternal and Neonatal Health, G. Garibaldi Hospital Catania, Italy

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

 

Front. Biosci. (Schol Ed) 2010, 2(1), 47–72; https://doi.org/10.2741/S45
Published: 1 January 2010
Abstract

Hypoxia-ischemia constitutes a risk in infants by altering cerebral blood flow regulatory mechanisms and causing loss of cerebral vascular auto-regulation. Hypotension, cerebral ischemia, and reperfusion are the main events involved in vascular auto-regulation leading to cell death and tissue damage. These dramatic phenomena represent a common repertoire in infants complicated by perinatal acute or chronic hypoxia. To date, despite accurate perinatal and intra-operative monitoring, the post-insult period is crucial, since clinical symptoms and monitoring parameters may be of no avail and therapeutic window for pharmacological intervention (6-12 hours) may be limited, at a time when brain damage is already occurring. Therefore, the measurement of circulating biochemical markers of brain damage, such as vasoactive agents and nervous tissue peptides is eagerly awaited in clinical practice to detect high risk infants. The present review is aimed at investigating the role as circulating biochemical markers such as adrenomedullin, S100B, activin A, neuronal specific enolase (NSE), glial fibrillary acid protein (GFAP), in the cascade of events leading to ischemia reperfusion injury in infants complicated by perinatal asphyxia.

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