neonatal transport

The objectives of this symposium review are to summarize relevant research and key welfare issues relative to calf transportation and identify strategies to mitigate welfare challenges. An important animal welfare concern across the US dairy industry is the transportation of preweaning calves from the source dairy to a calf-raising facility (e.g., calf ranches, heifer raising facilities, veal operations), auction, livestock market, or directly to slaughter. Millions of calves are transported annually in the United States and calf transport has garnered increased attention...

Doxorubicin (DOX) is a chemotherapeutic agent widely used for tumor treatment. Nonetheless its clinical application is heavily limited by its cardiotoxicity. There is accumulated evidence that transplantation of mesenchymal stem cell-derived exosomes (MSC-EXOs) can protect against Dox-induced cardiomyopathy (DIC). This study aimed to examine the cardioprotective effects of EXOs isolated from human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived MSCs (iPSC-MSCs) against DIC and explore the potential mechanisms. EXOs were isolated from the cultural supernatant of human BM-MSCs (BM-MSC-EXOs) and iPSC-MSCs (iPSC-MSC-EXOs) by ultracentrifugation...

Neonatal brain inflammation produced by intraperitoneal (i.p.) injection of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) results in long-lasting brain dopaminergic injury and motor disturbances in adult rats. The goal of the present work is to investigate the effect of neonatal systemic LPS exposure (1 or 2 mg/kg, i.p. injection in postnatal day 5, P5, male rats)-induced dopaminergic injury to examine methamphetamine (METH)-induced behavioral sensitization as an indicator of drug addiction. On P70, subjects underwent a treatment schedule of 5 once daily subcutaneous (s...

BACKGROUND: It is crucial to deliver a child at nearby primary healthcare facilities to prevent subsequent maternal or neonatal complications. In low-resource settings, such as Nepal, it is customary to forgo the neighboring primary healthcare facilities for child delivery. Reports are scanty about the extent and reasons for bypassing local health centers in Nepal. This study sought to determine the prevalence and contributing factors among women bypassing primary healthcare facilities for childbirth...

Recent development of amyloid-β (Aβ)-targeted immunotherapies for Alzheimer's disease (AD) have highlighted the need for accurate diagnostic methods. Antibody-based positron emission tomography (PET) ligands are well suited for this purpose as they can be directed toward the same target as the therapeutic antibody. Bispecific, brain-penetrating antibodies can achieve sufficient brain concentrations, but their slow blood clearance remains a challenge, since it prolongs the time required to achieve a target-specific PET signal...

Lack of data on drug secretion in human milk is a concern for safe use of drugs during postpartum.Clinical studies are often difficult to perform; despite substantial improvements in computational methodologies such as physiologically based pharmacokinetic modelling, there is limited clinical data to validate such models for many drugs.Various factors that are likely to impact milk to plasma ratio were identified. A literature search was performed to gather available data on milk composition, total volume of milk produced per day, milk pH, haematocrit, and renal blood flow and glomerular filtration rate in various animal models...

OBJECTIVE: : Environmental deprivation, a type of childhood maltreatment, has been reported to constrain the cognitive developmental processes such as associative learning and implicit learning, which may lead to functional and morphological changes in the ventral pallidum (VP) and pessimism, a well-known cognitive feature of major depression. We examined whether neonatal isolation (NI) could influence the incidence of learned helplessness (LH) in a rat model mimicking the pessimism, and the number of vesicular glutamate transporter 2 (VGLUT2)-expressing VP cells and Penk-expressing VP cells...

Hypothermia is a leading newborn complication, especially among premature and/or low birth weight infants. Within low/middle-income countries where incubators and radiant warmers are often in short supply, leading to gaps in the thermal care chain, neonatal hypothermia underlies high rates of newborn morbidity and mortality. Kangaroo Mother Care/Skin-to-skin care is an effective method for prevention of hypothermia in premature and low birthweight babies but can be very burdensome for families and healthcare providers...

BACKGROUND: Extremely premature infants (EPIs) are those less than 32 weeks of gestational age. Preterm birth is the leading cause of neonatal death and poor prognosis, accounting for 25% of neonatal deaths, with extremely premature births accounting for 50% of all premature deaths. Continuous quality improvement (CQI) improves patient outcomes by changing and optimizing clinical practice including increasing participation of neonatologists in prenatal consultation, maintenance of normal body temperature in preterm infants, early use of pulmonary surfactant, reduction of mechanical ventilation time and intensive breastfeeding to reduce clinically avoidable adverse events...

Research into the neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) has increased dramatically ever since Simister and Mostov first purified a rat version of the receptor. Over the years, FcRn has been shown to function not only as a receptor that transfers immunity from mother to fetus but also performs an array of different functions that include transport and recycling of immunoglobulins and albumin in the adult. Due to its important cellular roles, several clinical trials have been designed to either inhibit/enhance FcRn function or develop of non-invasive therapeutic delivery system such as fusion of drugs to IgG Fc or albumin to enhance delivery inside the cells...

Human milk contains extracellular vesicles (HMEVs). Pre-clinical models suggest that HMEVs may enhance intestinal function and limit inflammation; however, it is unknown if HMEVs or their cargo survive neonatal human digestion. This limits the ability to leverage HMEV cargo as additives to infant nutrition or as therapeutics. This study aimed to develop an EV isolation pipeline from small volumes of human milk and neonatal intestinal contents after milk feeding (digesta) to address the hypothesis that HMEVs survive in vivo neonatal digestion to be taken up intestinal epithelial cells (IECs)...

BACKGROUND: Reports on hypothermia from high-burden countries like Kenya amongst sick newborns often include few centers or relatively small sample sizes. OBJECTIVES: This study endeavored to describe: (i) the burden of hypothermia on admission across 21 newborn units in Kenya, (ii) any trend in prevalence of hypothermia over time, (iii) factors associated with hypothermia at admission, and (iv) hypothermia's association with inpatient neonatal mortality. METHODS: A retrospective cohort study was conducted from January 2020 to March 2023, focusing on small and sick newborns admitted in 21 NBUs...

Tracheoesophageal fistula (TEF) with or without esophageal atresia (EA) results from maldevelopment of the trachea and esophagus during maturation of the primitive foregut. EA/TEF commonly presents shortly after birth because of increased oral secretions and the inability to advance a nasogastric or orogastric tube to the proper depth. Given that prenatal diagnosis is uncommon and early intervention is important to reduce morbidity and mortality risk, early recognition and diagnosis are imperative. We present a case series of two neonates diagnosed with EA/TEF, type "C" and type "E," born at low-acuity centers, who required transport to a tertiary center for surgical support...

VEGFR2 (Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2) is a central regulator of placental angiogenesis. The study of the VEGFR2 proteome of chorionic villi at term revealed its partners MDMX (Double minute 4 protein) and PICALM (Phosphatidylinositol-binding clathrin assembly protein). Subsequently, the oxytocin receptor (OT-R) and vasopressin V1aR receptor were detected in MDMX and PICALM immunoprecipitations. Immunogold electron microscopy showed VEGFR2 on endothelial cell (EC) nuclei, mitochondria, and Hofbauer cells (HC), tissue-resident macrophages of the placenta...

Dendritic cell (DC)-targeted vaccination is a new mode of antigen delivery that relies on the use of monoclonal antibodies (mAb) to target antigen to specific DC subsets. The neonatal Fc receptor (FcRn) is a non-classical Fc receptor that binds to immunoglobulin G (IgG) in acidified endosomes and controls its intracellular transport and recycling. FcRn is known to participate in the antigen presentation of immune complexes, however its contribution to DC-targeted vaccination has not previously been examined...

INTRODUCTION: Pediatric testicular torsion (TT) is a urologic emergency that may result in testicular loss if left untreated. Testicular salvage is dependent on prompt intervention, and thus delays in diagnosis and management may threaten testicular viability. Knowledge of real-world Canadian practice patterns for pediatric TT will allow optimization of practices based on resource availability and geographic limitations to improve care. METHODS: An electronic survey on pediatric TT management was distributed to Canadian urologists...

BACKGROUND: Transcatheter closure of the patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) in premature infants is currently dependent on fluoroscopic guidance and transportation to the catheterization laboratory. AIM: We describe a new echocardiographically guided technique to allow our team to move to the bedside at the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) of the referring center for percutaneous treatment of PDA in premature infants. METHODS: This is a single-center, retrospective, primarily descriptive analysis...

OBJECTIVE: Immediate skin-to-skin contact (SSC) is already standard care for healthy term newborns, but its use for term or preterm newborns requiring admission to neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with or without respiratory support is challenging. This study aimed to assess the safety and feasibility of SSC during the transfer of newborn infants, using a new purpose-built mobile shuttle care-station, called "Tandem". MATERIAL AND METHODS: A monocentric prospective observational study was conducted at the tertiary referral center of the Université libre de Bruxelles in Brussels, Belgium after ethical approval by Hopital Erasme's Ethics Committee (ClinicalTrials...

Proteoglycans containing link-domains modify the extracellular matrix (ECM) to regulate cellular homeostasis and can also sensitize tissues/organs to injury and stress. Hypoxic-Ischemic (H-I) injury disrupts cellular homeostasis by activating inflammation and attenuating regeneration and repair pathways. In the brain, the main component of the ECM is the glycosaminoglycan (GAG), Hyaluronic Acid (HA), but whether HA modifications of the ECM regulate cellular homeostasis and response to H-I injury is not known...

OBJECTIVE: To develop a general and internationally applicable template of data variables for reporting interhospital neonatal intensive care transports. DESIGN: A five-step Delphi method. SETTING: A group of experts was guided through a formal consensus process using email. SUBJECTS: 12 experts in neonatal intensive care transports from Canada, Denmark, Norway, the UK and the USA. Four women and eight men. The experts were neonatologists, anaesthesiologists, intensive care nurse, anaesthetic nurse, medical leaders, researchers and a parent representative...