YOUNGSTERS, OLDSTERS, VISION AND THE ESPR Prof. Neil McIntosh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom    - Biography English - 2007-10-07
Speaker Disclosure University of Edinburgh Action Medical Research

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The annual presentations of good Paediatric Research in a different European city have been one of the highlights of my academic life. Maybe not quite so academically pure or cutting edge as the equivalent US meetings, but more friendly and culturally as well as academically rewarding. The foresight of my mentors got me hooked when a trainee, and I have always tried to bring my own juniors to the meetings.

Retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) still causes blindness in extremely preterm infants (EPTI). The Edinburgh rat model of ROP was developed to be clinically relevant. We have shown that oxygen fluctuations at ‘‘safe’’ levels are key to the development of ROP, though high oxygen levels are also important. The various international studies aimed at determining optimal arterial oxygen saturation (eg UK’s BOOST2) have identified ROP as an important outcome measure and will give more information. We are now exploring how nutrition influences the condition as the incidence at any gestation is twice as high for SGA infants.

EPTI usually escape severe neurological damage but a high proportion manifest cognitive and behavioural abnormalities at school age. We are using the rat model to explore the effect of physiological oxygen variability on the developing brain. We have shown that a fluctuating oxygen environment is associated with increased apoptosis and delayed myelination. Although the EPTI experiences many differences compared to the fetus of an equivalent gestational age, this could be a possible cause of the school age problems.