Neonatal Systemic Inflammation: Long Term Evaluation Of Mortality, Body Mass, Expression Of Tnf-Alpha And Production Of Oxidative Stress In The Cerebellum

The central nervous system is especially vulnerable in the neonatal period. Inflammatory processes occurring in this moment of life may affect its normal development. To evaluate the long term effects of a systemic inflammatory process induced by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection during the neonatal period.   Neonatal rats (Wistar, male) were randomly assigned to three different groups: NAIVE (n=9), Saline (SAL) (n=8) and LPS (n=11). Solutions were systemically injected (i.p.) on pos-natal (P) days P1, P3, P5 and P7. Body mass was verified at different time points. Rats were euthanized at P89. The cerebellum of some rats were freshly dissected and the mRNA expression of the pro-inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF- α) was analyzed using qPCR. Subsets of rats were perfused and the oxidative stress level in the cerebellum was assessed with dihydroetidine (DHE). Animals injected with LPS presented a higher mortality rate on the first week of life as compared to other groups (NAIVE 31%, SAL 20%, LPS 73%, p