Protecting infants from brain damage: A focus on HIE

Protecting infants from brain damage: A focus on HIE Lee J. Martin, PhD from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, discusses the pathology of infant hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), and the research he and his team are conducting to understand cell death mechanisms related to HIE and therefore identify new therapies. Brain injury occurring at any time in life is tragic, but when it occurs in babies and children, it is haunting. One cause of brain damage in infants is hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). It arises from reduced brain blood supply, oxygen insufficiency, and nutrient deprivation, for example, because of placental abnormalities and cardiorespiratory arrest. HIE occurs in one to three term gestation infants per 1000 live births. These babies are at high risk of death, and survivors can develop cerebral palsy, or other disorders of movement, epilepsy, and impairments in learning, memory, cognition, and emotional reactivity years later for their entire lives. The individual and family impacts are devastating, and the societal repercussions urgent.