Serotonin and cyclic sleep organization in full-term newborn infants with intrauterine growth retardation

BACKGROUND: The high frequency of neurological and mental diseases in children who had intrauterine retardatiojn development indicates the need to study specific markers of disorders of fetal brain functional development, in particular, the state of the serotonergic system, which plays a key role in the morpho-functional development of the brain in early ontogenesis. AIM: To study the content of serotonin in full-term newborns with intrauterine development delay in comparison with quantitative and qualitative characteristics of sleep. MATERIALS AND MЕTHODS: The main group consisted of 26 newborns, whose intrauterine development took place in conditions of chronic placental insufficiency, which led to the formation of an asymmetric form of intrauterine retardatiojn development. The control group consisted of 72 healthy newborns from healthy mothers without pregnancy complications. Children of each group are divided into three subgroups depending on gestational age: I 37, II 38, III 3940 weeks. In all children, 712 hours after birth, an electropoligram of sleep was recorded (an electroencephalograph of the company Mizar, Russia) and its quantitative and qualitative analyses were carried out, highlighting the orthodox, paradoxical phase and undifferentiated state. The serotonin content was determined in platelet-rich plasma of blood from the umbilical cord vein after birth, as well as in a platelet suspension prepared from venous blood taken on the first day of life. The content of serotonin in platelets was judged by the indicator obtained by dividing the amount of serotonin in the platelet suspension by the platelet level. The amount of serotonin was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography with electrochemical detection. Statistical analysis was performed using the Statistica 6 program (Statsoft Inc, USA). RESULTS: We report here a low content of serotonin in platelet-rich plasma and platelets of newborns with intrauterine growth retardation and the absence of its normal increase in weeks 3739 of intrauterine development, as well as a violation of the genetic programming for the sleep-wake cycle organization. CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of the serotonin-producing system of the brain in comparison with the newborn sleep pattern can serve as a diagnostic marker of brain damage and substantiate the need for timely application of neuroprotection.