The principal goals of this Perinatal Emphasis Research Center are to examine how the developing fetus responds to hypoxia and to provide better methods for assessing the condition of the fetus and immature newborn infant. A special feature of this center will be studies in the chronically instrumented pregnant baboon because of similarities in neuro-behavioral and physiological development among primates. Studies of the integration of physiological activities into defined states, together with endocrine function will provide new knowledge unique to the primate and not available from human investigation. These studies will supply key data for several other projects relating to regulatory mechanisms for understanding of fetal pituitary and adrenal function, changes in fetal activity preceding labor, and the continuum of the regulation of states from fetal to neonatal life. The goals are encompassed in a multidisciplinary program of seven interrelated projects, plus two core units which will provide the necessary administrative assistance and computer expertise for management of data and analysis required by each project. The research will provide new information on the mechanism of hypoxic injury to the fetus and will lead to new methods of assessing fetal well-being. It will also focus on mechanisms leading to fetal growth retardation as a result-of hypoxia and the structural and functional consequences of hypoxia on the developing heart and brain. Knowledge of the regulatory mechanisms of state organization and patterns of diurnal cyclicity would provide the normal physiological background necessary for determining whether there is a disruption in this organization. This could provide a new diagnostic approach to study the effects of perinatal drug abuse, perinatal brain damage and a possible neurodevelopmental basis for the sudden infant death syndrome.
| Ammari, Amer; Schulze, Karl F; Ohira-Kist, Kiyoko et al. (2009) Effects of body position on thermal, cardiorespiratory and metabolic activity in low birth weight infants. Early Hum Dev 85:497-501 |
| Tropper, P J; Goland, R S; Wardlaw, S L et al. (1987) Effects of betamethasone on maternal plasma corticotropin releasing factor, ACTH and cortisol during pregnancy. J Perinat Med 15:221-5 |
