Palmitoylethanolamide attenuates neurodevelopmental delay and early hippocampal damage following perinatal asphyxia in rats
Laboratory studyOther animals
- Design
- Laboratory study
- Subjects
- Newborn rats placed in a 37°C water bath for 19 minutes to induce perinatal asphyxia
- Dose used in the study
- Palmitoylethanolamide 10 mg/kg subcutaneously, given within the first hour of life
- Duration
- Assessed from postnatal day 1 to postnatal day 21
- What was measured
- Timing of neurobehavioural reflexes (gait, negative geotaxis, eye-opening, air-righting, auditory startle, sensory eyelid, forelimb placing, grasp), hippocampal CA1 ultrastructure by electron microscopy, and MAP-2, phosphorylated neurofilaments and GFAP by immunohistochemistry and western blot at postnatal day 21.
What the authors reported
This laboratory study found:
- Perinatal asphyxia caused late gait, negative geotaxis and eye-opening onset, and delayed appearance of air-righting, auditory startle, sensory eyelid, forelimb placing and grasp reflexes.
- At postnatal day 21 the hippocampal CA1 area showed signs of neuronal degeneration and reduced MAP-2.
- Palmitoylethanolamide treatment reduced asphyxia-induced hippocampal damage and normalised the timing of gait, air-righting, placing and grasp reflexes.
Limits of this study
A newborn rat model of perinatal asphyxia; it cannot show effect in human infants. The authors declare no commercial or financial conflicts of interest.
Source
PubMed 36090655 · doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2022.953157
Entry checked against the abstract on PubMed on 2026-09-22. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.