Weighing. experiments with lambs indicate a possible cause of SIDS.
Bacterial infections may trigger high levels of brain steroid which can make infants too sleepy to wake up when they encounter difficulties in breathing, suggests new research on lambs . Although a link between infections and sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) has been suspected, this is the first time a clear mechanism was found that could explain such a link.
SIDS usually occurs during an infant sleeps at night. An emerging theory holds that the condition is caused by bacterial toxins encountered by virtually all infants in the first year of life. Researchers have proposed several theories to explain how these toxins could kill infants, but so far there has been little experimental evidence to back them up.
Now physiologist Saraid pool Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, found that even slight bacterial infection can cause brain levels of steroids to increase dramatically, leading lambs to become extremely drowsy and difficult to wake. In a trial involving 12 lambs a mild infection with Escherichia coli caused levels of allopregnanolone steroids in the blood to increase by 50%. The results were even more dramatic in the brain, where levels of allopregnanolone, which is known to have sedative and anesthetic properties, increased by two to three times. If the same thing happens in humans, even a mild infection could blunt the ability of infants to awaken, says billiards. "If they develop breathing problems during sleep that cause their blood oxygen in the fall, they are not the appropriate response exciting that allows them to wake up."
John Newnham, Director of Women and Infants Research Foundation in Perth, Australia, said the finding is an important step towards the understanding of SIDS. "This helps us with the idea that infection is involved." The research has been accepted for publication in the journal Pediatric Research later in the year.
Related Sites
Monash University Department of Physiology
General information on SIDS from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the United States
0 Komentar