Perinatal asphyxia and intervention: possible neuroprotective effects of intravenous nicotine administration.

Perinatal asphyxia is a substantial worldwide contributor to mortality and morbidity. Interventional strategies are scarce, and apart from therapeutic hypothermia the care for these neonates is mainly supportive. There is an ongoing search for interventional strategies; and for the best practice of resuscitation. Nicotine has been found to have neuroprotective abilities in adult animal models, and this thesis investigates the neuroprotective effects of nicotine administration in a neonatal model of hypoxic-ischemic brain damage. In this work the administration of nicotine lead to increase in tolerance towards hypoxia; decrease in the potentially neurotoxic substances glutamate and Non-Protein Bound Iron (NPBI); and increase in the neuroprotective Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). – showing that the findings of neuroprotective abilities in adult models can be reproduced in a neonatal model: This leads to speculations that nicotine could be a possible interventional strategy in asphyxiated neonates