The Thymus in Infants With Perinatal Telencephalic Leukoencephalopathy

Leviton, Alan; Gilles, Floyd H.; Vawter, Gordon F.

doi:10.1001/archneur.1978.00500300051009

Cited by 15 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…This pattern of injury (periventricular leukomalacia) is the major neurological lesion associated with cerebral palsy, a disorder affecting ϳ2 per 1000 live births (Kuban and Leviton, 1994). Periventricular leukomalacia is characterized by early damage of axons and glial cells (Gilles and Murphy, 1969;Leviton and Gilles, 1971;Banker and Larroche, 1974;Paneth et al, 1994;Volpe, 1995). There is subsequent microglial activation and astrocyte proliferation, followed by cavitation (Banker and Larroche, 1974;Paneth et al, 1994).…”

Section: /O4mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intracellular Calcium and Cell Death during Ischemia in Neonatal Rat White Matter AstrocytesIn Situ

Fern

1998

J. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The major pathological correlate of cerebral palsy is ischemic injury of CNS white matter. Histological studies show early injury of glial cells and axons. To investigate glial cell injury, I monitored intracellular Ca2+and cell viability in fura-2-loaded neonatal rat white matter glial cells during ischemia. Fura-2 fixation combined with immunohistochemistry revealed that fura-2-loaded cells were GFAP+/O4−and were therefore a population of neonatal white matter astrocytes.Significant ischemic Ca2+influx was found, mediated by both L- and T-type voltage-gated Ca2+channels. Ca2+influx via T-type channels was the most important factor during the initial stage of ischemia and was associated with significant cell death within 10–20 min of the onset of ischemia. The Na+–Ca2+exchanger acted to remove cytoplasmic Ca2+throughout the ischemic and recovery periods. Neither the release of Ca2+from intracellular stores nor influx via glutamate-gated channels contributed to the rise in intracellular Ca2+during ischemia. Ischemic cell death was reduced significantly by removing extracellular Ca2+or by blocking voltage-gated Ca2+channels. The exclusively voltage-gated Ca2+channel nature of the Ca2+influx, the role played by T-type Ca2+channels, the protective effect of the Na+–Ca2+exchanger, and the lack of significant Ca2+release from intracellular stores are features of ischemia that have not been reported in other CNS cell types.

show abstract

Section: /O4mentioning

confidence: 99%

Intracellular Calcium and Cell Death during Ischemia in Neonatal Rat White Matter AstrocytesIn Situ

Fern

1998

J. Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Newborns who died with cerebral white matter damage were much more likely than their peers to have thymus involution and low thymus weights [12] . To our knowledge, however, no one has evaluated these thymus/ brain relationships in living preterm newborns.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Thymus Involution and Cerebral White Matter Damage in Extremely Low Gestational Age Neonates

2006

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Among newborns who die, those who have cerebral white matter damage are more likely than others to have thymus involution and low thymus weights. Objective: We sought to evaluate in a population of preterm newborns who did not die if those who developed a cerebral white matter damage (as defined by an echolucency) are more likely than others to have thymus involution as assessed on chest radiographs. Method: The 89 infants whose data were evaluated were born before the 28th week of gestation, had at least one chest radiograph within the first 2 days of life (to determine thymus size), and at least one cranial ultrasonogram to assess for white matter echolucency. Results: Eighty-five percent of these infants had a small thymus within the first 2 weeks of life. Median time to thymus involution in those born before the 26th week of gestation was 36 h, and in those born during or after the 26th week of gestation was 140 h. Infants who developed involution before the median time in their respective gestational age groups were classified as early involuters (group 1) and were compared to their peers with late/no involution (group 2). Infants with an echolucency were more likely to have had early involution than infants without an echolucency (89% vs. 44%) (p = 0.01). This relationship was not distorted by potential confounders. The echolucency odds ratio associated with early thymus involution was consistently above 8 in all strata of the sample. Conclusion: These results are consistent with the possibility that early thymus involution and neonatal white matter damage are not independent phenomena and may have common antecedents.

show abstract

“…Although the mechanisms underlying the observed relationship between a small thymus at birth and adverse neonatal outcome in VLBW infants remain to be elucidated, intrauterine exposure to endotoxin and/or peroxisome proliferators may play a major role. In fact, small thymus and spleen have been reported as an autoptic finding in infants with perinatal brain white matter damage, and are related to undernutrition, viral infection and/or endotoxin exposure [11,12]. A small thymic size at birth has also been reported in cases of histologic chorioamnionitis [2, 5, 12,14], while significant thymus and spleen atrophy in di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP)-treated mice has been described [15].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Small thymus at birth and neonatal outcome in very-low-birth-weight infants

et al. 2003

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Acute thymic involution in the human fetus and newborn is associated with histological chorioamnionitis, a leading cause of prematurity, neonatal morbidity and mortality [3, 5,12,14]. Positive linear relationships between thymus size, birth weight [7] and gestational age [5] have been reported. Although a small thymus size at birth has been shown to be an accurate predictor for bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD) in very-low-birthweight (VLBW) infants [4], no information exists to date on the relationship between thymus size and other adverse neonatal outcomes. A total of 326 consecutive VLBW newborns who were admitted to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in Brindisi and who survived for at least 36 weeks' post-conceptional age were recruited (157 males, 169 females; gestational age: 28.9±3.1 weeks, range: 24-32; birth weight: 1,205±235 g, range: 550-1,490. Over the last 16 years, a minimal handling policy, i.e. nasal continuous positive airway pressure (nCPAP) and/or nasal intermittent positive pressure ventilation (nIPPV) for the treatment of respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), has been used in the Brindisi NICU [9]. Major malformations, primary immunodeficiency disorders and mediastinal diseases were excluded. A single standardised dose of prenatal steroid was used in our population. Thymic size was measured on standard chest radiographs routinely performed for clinical reasons. Thymic size was expressed as the ratio between the transverse diameter of the cardiothymic image at the level of the carina and that of the thorax (CT/T) [2, 4, 5], and a CT/T <0.28 was considered to indicate a small thymic size [2]. Each measurement was made in triplicate and mean values were used for data analysis. Mean intra-and inter-observer coefficients of variation were 3.2% and 5.1%, respectively [1]. Chest radiographs with ill-defined cardiothymic silhouette were excluded. Approval of the Institutional Review Board and informed consent from the parents were obtained. BPD is usually defined as oxygen dependency at 28 days' postnatal age or 36 weeks' post-conceptional age. In this respect, the last definition was not applicable due to the very low incidence of oxygen-dependency at 36 weeks in our population [4,9]. Intraventricular haemorrhage (IVH, grades 1-4] and periventricular leukomalacia (PVLM), necrotising enterocolitis (NEC), retinopathy of prematurity (ROP, grades 1-5), RDS, patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and seizures were defined according to widely recognised criteria. Sepsis was defined as described [13]. Data were expressed as means ± standard deviation for continuous, normally distributed data and medians with inter-quartile range for non-normal distributions. The t-test or Mann-Whitney U test, and v 2 test or Fisher's exact test were used to compare continuous, normally distributed data, non-parametric continuous data and categorical data, respectively. Data were analysed by multiple logistic regression models, with each of the end-points (RDS, PDA, ROP, PVL, IVH, NEC, sepsis, seizures) as the dependent variab...

show abstract

The Thymus in Infants With Perinatal Telencephalic Leukoencephalopathy

Cited by 15 publications

References 41 publications

Intracellular Calcium and Cell Death during Ischemia in Neonatal Rat White Matter AstrocytesIn Situ

Intracellular Calcium and Cell Death during Ischemia in Neonatal Rat White Matter AstrocytesIn Situ

Thymus Involution and Cerebral White Matter Damage in Extremely Low Gestational Age Neonates

Small thymus at birth and neonatal outcome in very-low-birth-weight infants

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About