Child Abuse Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Child Abuse, including details on family violence, examinations, long-term effects, psychiatrics disorders.

Heme oxygenase 1 in cerebrospinal fluid from infants and children after severe traumatic brain injury.

Cousar JL, Lai Y, Marco CD, Bayir H, Adelson PD, Janesko-Feldman KL, Kochanek PM, Clark RS

Department of Critical Care Medicine, Safar Center for Resuscitation Research, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.

Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) is an enzyme important in the catabolism of heme that is induced under conditions of oxidative stress. HO-1 degradation of heme yields biliverdin, bilirubin, carbon monoxide and iron. HO-1 is thought to serve a protective antioxidant function, and upregulation of HO-1 has been demonstrated in experimental models of neurodegeneration, subarachnoid hemorrhage, cerebral ischemia and traumatic brain injury (TBI). We measured HO-1 concentration in cerebral spinal fluid samples from 48 infants and children following TBI and 7 control patients by ELISA. Increased HO-1 was seen in TBI versus control patients--mean 2.75+/-0.63, peak 4.17+/-0.96 ng/ml versus control (<0.078 ng/ml, not detectable) (p<0.001). Increased HO-1 concentration was associated with increased injury severity and unfavorable neurological outcome (both p<0.05). Increased HO-1 concentration was independently associated with younger age; however, statistical analysis could not rule out the possibility that the effect of age was related to inflicted TBI from child abuse. HO-1 increases after TBI and appears to be more prominent in infants compared with older children after injury.

Published 31 August 2006 in Dev Neurosci, 28(4): 342-7.
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