ArticleJournal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism2014
Partial neural protection with prophylactic low-dose melatonin after asphyxia in preterm fetal sheep.
Article in Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 45 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
45 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 66 citations in OpenAlex.
- Melatonin for women in pregnancy for neuroprotection of the fetus.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2016Pooled it
- Weighing up the evidence on ethanol excipient use in common neonatal medications.Pediatric research · 2025Article
- Perinatal Neuroprotection in Preterm Birth.Geburtshilfe und Frauenheilkunde · 2025Article
- Article
- Chronic Inflammation Offers Hints About Viable Therapeutic Targets for Preeclampsia and Potentially Related Offspring Sequelae.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Review
- Circadian patterns of heart rate variability in fetal sheep after hypoxia-ischaemia: A biomarker of evolving brain injury.The Journal of physiology · 2024Article
- Neuroprotective Effect of Melatonin in a Neonatal Hypoxia-Ischemia Rat Model Is Regulated by the AMPK/mTOR Pathway.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2024Article
- Dysmaturation of sleep state and electroencephalographic activity after hypoxia-ischaemia in preterm fetal sheep.Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2024Article
- Neuroprotective effects of maternal melatonin administration in early-onset placental insufficiency and fetal growth restriction.Pediatric research · 2024Article
- Neuroprotective therapies in the NICU in preterm infants: present and future (Neonatal Neurocritical Care Series).Pediatric research · 2024Review
- Effects of fetal growth restriction on the perinatal neurovascular unit and possible treatment targets.Pediatric research · 2024Review
- Melatonin as a Therapy for Preterm Brain Injury: What Is the Evidence?Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Magnesium sulphate reduces tertiary gliosis but does not improve EEG recovery or white or grey matter cell survival after asphyxia in preterm fetal sheep.The Journal of physiology · 2023Article
- Tumour necrosis factor blockade after asphyxia in foetal sheep ameliorates cystic white matter injury.Brain : a journal of neurology · 2023Article
- Partial protective effects of melatonin on developing brain in a rat model of chorioamnionitis.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Melatonin for Neonatal Encephalopathy: From Bench to Bedside.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Preventing Brain Injury in the Preterm Infant-Current Controversies and Potential Therapies.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Tertiary cystic white matter injury as a potential phenomenon after hypoxia-ischaemia in preterm f sheep.Brain communications · 2021Article
- Melatonin and/or erythropoietin combined with hypothermia in a piglet model of perinatal asphyxia.Brain communications · 2021Article
- Melatonin as fetal neuroprotection: Links and risks.Biomedical journal · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Melatonin is a naturally occurring indolamine with mild antioxidant properties that is neuroprotective in perinatal animals. There is limited information on its effects on preterm brain injury. In this study, 23 chronically instrumented fetal sheep received 25 minutes of complete umbilical cord occlusion at 101 to 104 days gestation (term is 147 days). Melatonin was administered to the ewe 15 minutes before occlusion (0.1 mg/kg bolus followed by 0.1 mg/kg per hour for 6 hours, n=8), or the equivalent volume of vehicle (2% ethanol, n=7), or saline (n=8), or maternal saline plus sham occlusion (n=8). Sheep were killed after 7 days recovery in utero. Fetal blood pressure, heart rate, nuchal activity, and temperature were similar between groups. Vehicle infusion was associated with improved neuronal survival in the caudate nucleus, but greater neuronal loss in the regions of the hippocampus, with reduced proliferation and increased ameboid microglia in the white matter (P<0.05). Maternal melatonin infusion was associated with faster recovery of fetal EEG, prolonged reduction in carotid blood flow, similar neuronal survival to vehicle, improved numbers of mature oligodendrocytes, and reduced microglial activation in the white matter (P<0.05). Prophylactic maternal melatonin treatment is partially protective but its effects may be partly confounded by ethanol used to dissolve melatonin.
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Registered trials
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