Hydrogen Therapy Protects Baby Brains During Low Oxygen in Pregnancy
- Authors
- Wenwu Liu, Oumei Chen, Chunhua Chen, Bihua Wu, Jiping Tang, John H. Zhang
- Journal
- Acta Neurochirurgica Supplementum
- Year
- 2011
- DOI
- 10.1007/978-3-7091-0693-8_51
- Study Type
- Rat
- Outcome
- Positive
- Peer Reviewed
- Yes
- Country
- China
- Health Condition
- Fetal Brain Injury
- Body System
- Nervous System
TL;DR
Breathing hydrogen gas helped protect baby rats' brains from damage when their mothers didn't get enough oxygen during pregnancy.
Key Finding
Hydrogen gas treatment during maternal low-oxygen exposure prevented body weight loss in newborn rats and improved their reflexes and movement abilities compared to untreated low-oxygen exposure.
Summary
Researchers exposed pregnant rats to low-oxygen conditions (which can harm fetal development) and tested whether adding hydrogen gas could protect the developing fetuses. Newborn rats exposed to low oxygen had reduced body weight and showed problems with basic reflexes and movement, but those whose mothers received hydrogen gas during the low-oxygen exposure had better body weight and improved reflexes. The protective effect didn't appear to involve changes in a specific type of brain cell, suggesting hydrogen may work by reducing harmful chemical reactions in the body.
Practical Takeaway
This rat study suggests hydrogen gas may have protective effects against fetal brain injury from oxygen deprivation, but this is very early-stage research. The findings cannot be directly applied to humans, and much more research—including human studies—would be needed before any therapeutic use could be considered. The mechanism appears to involve antioxidant effects rather than direct cell protection.
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the effects of hydrogen on fetal brain injury during maternal hypoxia. Pregnant rats (n=12, at gestational day 17) were randomly assigned into three groups; air, hypoxia, and hypoxia plus hydrogen groups were put into a chamber and flushed with room air (21% O2 and 79% N2), hypoxia (8% O2 and 92% N2), and hypoxia with hydrogen mixture (2% H2, 8% O2 and 90% N2), respectively, for 4 consecutive hours. After birth, body and brain weights, body-righting reflex, and negative geotropism of neonates were measured, and then pups were killed at days 1 and 7. Oligodendrocytes were studied at post-natal day 1 by immunohistochemistry. We found significant decreases in body weight in the hypoxia group (P0.05 vs. room air group). Even though brain weight was not different among groups, the brain weight to body weight ratio in the room air group was significantly (P<0.05) lower than that in the hypoxia alone or hypoxia plus hydrogen groups. Body-righting reflex at day 1 and negative geotropism at days 3-4 showed deficiency in hypoxia animals when compared with the room air group (P<0.05). Hydrogen treatment improved the body-righting reflex and negative geotropism (P<0.05 vs. room air group). The above-mentioned functional changes caused by hypoxia were not associated with morphology and cell death of oligodendrocytes. Therefore, the maternal hypoxia-induced body weight loss, and functional abnormalities and hydrogen treatment during hypoxia offered a protective effect and improved functions in neonates.