Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Mats Blennow, Karolinska Institutet
- Second opponent: Senior Consultant Dr. Med Astri Maria Lang, Oslo University Hospital
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Farrukh Abbas Chaudhry, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Bente Halvorsen,
Principal Supervisor
Professor Emeritus Ola Didrik Saugstad
Summary
Neonatal encephalopathy, and hereunder hypoxia-ischemia, is a major cause of newborn and pediatric morbidity and mortality. Survivor phenotypes range from mild learning disability to severe neurodevelopmental delay.
Therapeutic hypothermia is the only established treatment for hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy, and it significantly reduces both mortality and morbidity in the moderately affected encephalopathic infants. But still large numbers of infants develop sequelae and adjuvant neuroprotective strategies are warranted.
In this thesis, Marianne U. Huun and colleagues have used a well-established newborn piglet model of hypoxia-ischemia to explore a novel neuroprotectant, the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). In the model DHA was administered in combination with and without therapeutic hypothermia. Lipid peroxides as markers of oxidative stress were measured in urine, blood and brain tissue. H+MRS was applied on frozen brain tissue and neuropathology was analyzed to exploratory assess reductions in oxidative stress and neuroprotection.
Additional information
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