Hydrogen Gas + Cooling Therapy Helps Newborns Recover from Brain Injury
- Authors
- Yinmon Htun, Shinji Nakamura, Yasuhiro Nakao, Tsutomu Mitsuie, Makoto Nakamura, Satoshi Yamato, Wataru Jinnai, Kosuke Koyano, Kenichi Ohta, Aya Morimoto, Takayuki Wakabayashi, Masashiro Sugino, Kazumichi Fujioka, Ikuko Kato, Sonoko Kondo, Saneyuki Yasuda, Takanori Miki, Masaki Ueno, Takashi Kusaka
- Journal
- Scientific Reports
- Year
- 2019
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41598-019-40674-8
- Study Type
- Pig
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- Japan
- Health Condition
- Neonatal Hypoxic-Ischemic Encephalopathy
- Body System
- Nervous System
TL;DR
Adding molecular hydrogen to the standard cooling treatment for newborns with brain damage due to lack of oxygen improves their recovery and brain health.
Key Finding
Newborn piglets treated with both therapeutic cooling and hydrogen gas ventilation showed better neurological recovery and less brain cell death compared to cooling alone.
Summary
Researchers tested whether adding hydrogen gas to the current standard treatment (cooling) for newborn brain injury could improve outcomes. They used newborn piglets with induced brain injury and compared three groups: untreated injury, injury treated with cooling alone, and injury treated with cooling plus hydrogen gas breathing. Piglets receiving both cooling and hydrogen recovered better neurologically over five days and showed less brain cell death on examination.
Practical Takeaway
This early-stage animal study suggests that hydrogen gas combined with cooling may enhance treatment for newborn brain injury, but the findings are from piglets only and much more research—including human trials—would be needed before any clinical application. The results are promising enough to warrant further investigation but should not be interpreted as evidence that hydrogen water or hydrogen treatments are currently effective for this condition in humans.
Abstract
Despite its poor outcomes, therapeutic hypothermia (TH) is the current standard treatment for neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE). In this study, due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antiapoptotic properties, the effectiveness of molecular hydrogen (H2) combined with TH was evaluated by means of neurological and histological assessments. Piglets were divided into three groups: hypoxic-ischaemic insult with normothermia (NT), insult with hypothermia (TH, 33.5 ± 0.5 °C), and insult with hypothermia with H2 ventilation (TH-H2, 2.1-2.7%). H2 ventilation and TH were administered for 24 h. After ventilator weaning, neurological assessment was performed every 6 h for 5 days. On day 5, the brains of the piglets were harvested for histopathological analysis. Regarding the neurological score, the piglets in the TH-H2 group consistently had the highest score from day 2 to 5 and showed a significantly higher neurological score from day 3 compared with the NT group. Most piglets in the TH-H2 group could walk at day 3 of recovery, whereas walking ability was delayed in the two other groups. The histological results revealed that TH-H2 tended to improve the status of cortical gray matter and subcortical white matter, with a considerable reduction in cell death. In this study, the combination of TH and H2 improved short-term neurological outcomes in neonatal hypoxic-ischaemic piglets.