Title:Current and Experimental Pharmacological Approaches in Neonatal Hypoxic- Ischemic Encephalopathy
Volume: 21
Issue: 11
Author(s): Teresa Zalewska, Joanna Jaworska and Malgorzata Ziemka-Nalecz
Affiliation:
Keywords:
Brain damage, hypoxia-ischemia, neuroprotection, neurogenesis, stem cells, transplantation.
Abstract: Neonatal hypoxic-ischemic (HI) injury still remains an important issue as it is a frequent cause of neonatal
death and life-long neurobehavioral and cognitive dysfunction. In spite of the decades of research which led us to a better
knowledge of the pathological mechanism of hypoxic-ischemic brain injury, the clinical use of potential neuroprotective
drugs (including, among others, excitatory amino acids antagonists, free radical inhibitors and scavengers, growth
factors, xenon, cannabinoids, anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic agents) became avoided owing to insufficiency and
/or treatment-induced undesirable side effects. The only available effective treatment, hypothermia, neither provides
complete brain protection nor stimulates the repair necessary for neurodevelopmental outcome. This fact brings about
increased interest in alternative methods of therapy, such as regenerative medicine using stem cells. Growing number of
in vivo preclinical studies revealed that mesenchymal stem cells as well as human cord blood cells may improve functional outcome after
HI insult and may represent a new beneficial treatment modality for infants developing hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy. In this review
we briefly highlight the present and potential forthcoming therapeutic treatments aimed at attenuation of the detrimental effects of neonatal
hypoxia-ischemia.
