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Altered Development of Mesencephalic Dopaminergic Neurons in SIDS: New Insights into Understanding Sudden Infant Death Pathogenesis

Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is defined as the unexpected sudden death of an infant under 1 year of age that remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation. The SIDS pathogenesis is still unknown; however, abnormalities in brain centers that control breathing and arousal from sleep,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Lavezzi, Anna Maria
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8615170/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34829763
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9111534
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author Lavezzi, Anna Maria
author_facet Lavezzi, Anna Maria
author_sort Lavezzi, Anna Maria
collection PubMed
description Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is defined as the unexpected sudden death of an infant under 1 year of age that remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation. The SIDS pathogenesis is still unknown; however, abnormalities in brain centers that control breathing and arousal from sleep, including dramatic changes in neurotransmitter levels, have been supposed in these deaths. This is the first study focusing on mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons, so far extensively studied only in animals and human neurological diseases, in SIDS. Dopaminergic structures in midbrain sections of a large series of sudden infant deaths (36 SIDS and 26 controls) were identified using polyclonal rabbit antibodies against tyrosine hydroxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme in catecholamine biosynthesis, and the dopamine transporter, a membrane protein specifically expressed in dopaminergic cells. Dopamine-immunolabeled neurons were observed concentrated in two specific structures: the pars compacta of the substantia nigra and in the subnucleus medialis of the periaqueductal gray matter. Anatomical and functional degenerations of dopaminergic neurons in these regions were observed in most SIDS cases but never in controls. These results indicate that dopamine depletion, which is already known to be linked especially to Parkinson’s disease, is strongly involved even in SIDS pathogenesis.
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spelling pubmed-86151702021-11-26 Altered Development of Mesencephalic Dopaminergic Neurons in SIDS: New Insights into Understanding Sudden Infant Death Pathogenesis Lavezzi, Anna Maria Biomedicines Article Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is defined as the unexpected sudden death of an infant under 1 year of age that remains unexplained after a thorough case investigation. The SIDS pathogenesis is still unknown; however, abnormalities in brain centers that control breathing and arousal from sleep, including dramatic changes in neurotransmitter levels, have been supposed in these deaths. This is the first study focusing on mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons, so far extensively studied only in animals and human neurological diseases, in SIDS. Dopaminergic structures in midbrain sections of a large series of sudden infant deaths (36 SIDS and 26 controls) were identified using polyclonal rabbit antibodies against tyrosine hydroxylase, the rate-limiting enzyme in catecholamine biosynthesis, and the dopamine transporter, a membrane protein specifically expressed in dopaminergic cells. Dopamine-immunolabeled neurons were observed concentrated in two specific structures: the pars compacta of the substantia nigra and in the subnucleus medialis of the periaqueductal gray matter. Anatomical and functional degenerations of dopaminergic neurons in these regions were observed in most SIDS cases but never in controls. These results indicate that dopamine depletion, which is already known to be linked especially to Parkinson’s disease, is strongly involved even in SIDS pathogenesis. MDPI 2021-10-26 /pmc/articles/PMC8615170/ /pubmed/34829763 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9111534 Text en © 2021 by the author. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Lavezzi, Anna Maria
Altered Development of Mesencephalic Dopaminergic Neurons in SIDS: New Insights into Understanding Sudden Infant Death Pathogenesis
title Altered Development of Mesencephalic Dopaminergic Neurons in SIDS: New Insights into Understanding Sudden Infant Death Pathogenesis
title_full Altered Development of Mesencephalic Dopaminergic Neurons in SIDS: New Insights into Understanding Sudden Infant Death Pathogenesis
title_fullStr Altered Development of Mesencephalic Dopaminergic Neurons in SIDS: New Insights into Understanding Sudden Infant Death Pathogenesis
title_full_unstemmed Altered Development of Mesencephalic Dopaminergic Neurons in SIDS: New Insights into Understanding Sudden Infant Death Pathogenesis
title_short Altered Development of Mesencephalic Dopaminergic Neurons in SIDS: New Insights into Understanding Sudden Infant Death Pathogenesis
title_sort altered development of mesencephalic dopaminergic neurons in sids: new insights into understanding sudden infant death pathogenesis
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8615170/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34829763
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines9111534
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