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Prevalence of prenatal brain damage amongst infant deaths investigated

October 28, 1999

The researchers are currently completing a two-year, Scotland-wide study of the prevalence of prenatal brain damage in almost 400 babies who died around the time of their birth. The next, linked, project will be to look at a possible connection between the apolipoprotein E gene (ApoE) and brain damage in babies. This gene has a known association with vascular and neurodegenerative diseases in adults, and exists in six phenotypes in humans. The project will also explore the condition of the vascular supply to the placenta in mothers with different forms of the ApoE gene, as this may be a factor in the outcome of the pregnancies. If a connection between the several, alternative forms of the ApoE gene and prenatal brain damage is established, this may in future help identify babies at high-risk.
Professor Jeanne Bell, Professor of Neuropathology and Honorary Consultant in the Department of Pathology, has collaborated with colleagues Professor Neil McIntosh and Dr Julie-Clare Becher of the Department of Child Life and Health, and Dr Jean Keeling of the Pathology Department at Royal Hospital for Sick Children, on the Scottish Executive-funded research.
The team has discovered, during the course of the two year survey, that more than half of the babies who die in the perinatal (around birth) period show evidence of pre-existing brain damage. A specific protein,bAPP, has been found in a third of these cases. Professor Bell explains: "This protein is known to be a marker molecule for damage to the mature brain, whether it be traumatic injury or stroke."
It is already known that patients with the ApoEe4 genotype are at increased risk of late onset Alzheimer's disease, and of a poorer outcome after head injury, both linked to the conversion of bAPP into an insoluble protein, bamyloid.
The next part of the study, involving the investigation of genetic susceptibility to prenatal brain injury, has been granted initial two-year funding of £70,000 by the Scottish Executive.
For further information,
please contact:
Professor Jeanne Bell, Department of Pathology, Western General Hospital, Tel 0131 537 1975

Edinburgh, University of