Dexamethasone aggravates hippocampal apoptosis and learning deficiency in pneumococcal meningitis in infant rats

被引：103

作者：

Leib, SL ^{[1
]}

Heimgartner, C ^{[1
]}

Bifrare, YD ^{[1
]}

Loeffler, JM ^{[1
]}

Täuber, MG ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Univ Bern, Inst Infect Dis, CH-3010 Bern, Switzerland

来源：

PEDIATRIC RESEARCH | 2003年 / 54卷 / 03期

关键词：

D O I：

10.1203/01.PDR.0000079185.67878.72

中图分类号：

R72 [儿科学];

学科分类号：

100202 ;

摘要：

In an infant rat model of pneumococcal meningitis the effect of dexamethasone on neuronal injury in the hippocampus and on learning disability after recovery from the disease was examined. Treatment with dexamethasone or vehicle was started 18 h after infection, concomitant with antibiotics. Neuronal apoptosis in the hippocampal dentate gyrus 34 h after infection was significantly aggravated by dexamethasone treatment compared with vehicle controls (p = 0.02). Three weeks after acute pneumococcal meningitis, learning capacity of animals was assessed in the Morris water maze. The results showed a significantly impaired learning performance of infected animals treated with dexamethasone compared with vehicle controls (p = 0.01). Dexametha-sone had no effect on hippocampal injury or learning in uninfected controls. Thus, dexamethasone as adjuvant therapy increased hippocampal cell injury and reduced learning capacity in this model of pneumococcal meningitis in infant rats.

引用

页码：353 / 357

页数：5

共 37 条

[1] Subtle shifts in the ratio between pro- and antiapoptotic molecules after activation of corticosteroid receptors decide neuronal fate [J].