ORIGINAL ARTICLE   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana - Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2021 June;180(6):263-7

DOI: 10.23736/S0393-3660.20.04391-0

Copyright © 2020 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Study of nestin in newborn infants with neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy

Safaa A. ELMENEZA ¹ ✉, Eman A. SALEH ¹, Iman EL-BAGOURY ²

¹ Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University, Cairo Egypt; ² Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine for Girls, Al-Azhar University, Cairo, Egypt

BACKGROUND: Nestin is intermediate filament found in neurons and astrocytes, its cellular expression is upregulated in response to situations of cellular stress and/or induced proliferation in the nervous system. The aim of this study was to measure the values of nestin in newborn infants with neonatal hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy.
METHODS: This was case control study, included 45 full term neonates suffering from perinatal asphyxia who were admitted to NICU of Al-Zhraa University hospital, they showed manifestation of HIE during the first 24 hours after birth. Measurement of nestin was done using enzyme-linked immunosorbent essay.
RESULTS: There was significant increase in the level of nestin in HIE group compared with the control group. This rise was not significantly increased in stage I than stage II HIE. At cutoff point >140.0 ng/dL the level of nestin showed sensitivity (98%) detect full term newborn with HIE, specificity (95%) to exclude cases without HIE with accuracy (96%).
CONCLUSIONS: Hypoxic ischemic injury in neonatal brain stimulate proliferation, differentiation and migration of neural stem progenitor cells to initiate regenerative response in the form of increased nestin level that might contribute to brain recovery.

KEY WORDS: Nestin; Brain hypoxa-ischemia; Brain diseases; Asphyxia neonatorum; Newborn infant