High expression of tumor necrosis factor-α and interleukin-6 in periventricular leukomalacia☆,☆☆,★,★★,♢
Section snippets
Study design
A case-control study was designed to compare cytokine expression in histologic sections of brains of neonates who died with and without periventricular leukomalacia. The autopsy records of the Department of Pathology at Seoul National University Children's Hospital between 1987 and 1994 were reviewed to identify cases with these lesions. Controls were obtained from cases of neonatal deaths without periventricular leukomalacia lesions over the same period of time matched for gestational age at
Results
A total of 20 cases with periventricular leukomalacia were identified during the study period. Three cases died of major congenital anomalies (chondrodysplasia [n = 1] and lung hypoplasia [n = 2]) and were excluded from the final analysis. Cytokine expression was demonstrated in the brains of all these cases with periventricular leukomalacia and major congenital anomalies.
Table I provides detailed information about the gestational age at birth, duration of survival, neonatal complications, and
Comment
Although brain white matter lesions are the most important identifiable risk factors for the development of cerebral palsy, there is a paucity of information about the molecular pathologic mechanisms responsible for this disease. In 1993 Leviton9 proposed that inflammatory cytokines released during the course of intrauterine infection may mediate the white matter damage characteristic of periventricular leukomalacia. Our data clearly indicate that antigenic expression of TNF-α and IL-6 was
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Cited by (0)
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From the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynecologya and Pathology,b College of Medicine, Seoul National University.
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Supported by grant No. 03-96-050 from Seoul National University Hospital Research Fund.
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Dr. Romero has participated as a private citizen, not as an agent of the U.S. government or any of the universities to which he holds appointments.
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Reprint requests: Bo Hyun Yoon, MD, PhD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, 110-744.
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