DHA Reduces Oxidative Stress after Perinatal Asphyxia: A Study in Newborn Piglets.

BACKGROUND: Perinatal hypoxic-ischemic brain damage is a major cause of acute mortality and chronic neurological morbidity in infants and children. Oxidative stress due to free radical formation and the initiation of abnormal oxidative reactions appears to play a key role. Docosahexanoic acid (DHA), a main component of brain membrane phospholipids, may act as a neuroprotectant after hypoxia-ischemia by regulating multiple molecular pathways and gene expression.

OBJECTIVES: The aims of this study were to test the hypothesis that DHA provides significant protection against lipoperoxidation damage in the cerebral cortex and hippocampus in a neonatal piglet model of severe hypoxia-reoxygenation.

METHODS: Newborn piglets, Noroc (LYLD), were subjected to severe global hypoxia. One group was resuscitated with ambient air (21% group, n = 11) and another also received 5 mg/kg of DHA 4 h after the end of hypoxia (21% DHA group, n = 10). After 9.5 h, tissues from the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus were sampled and the levels of isoprostanes, neuroprostanes, neurofurans, and F2-dihomo-isoprostanes were determined by the liquid chromatography triple quadrupole mass spectrometry technique.

RESULTS: Lipid peroxidation biomarkers were significantly lower in both the cortex and hippocampus in the DHA-treated group compared with the untreated group.

CONCLUSIONS: The present study demonstrates that DHA administration after severe hypoxia in newborn piglets has an antioxidative effect in the brain, suggesting a protective potential of DHA if given after injuries to the brain.