Feinberg
Northwestern Medicine | Northwestern University | Faculty Profiles

News Center

  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
    • Podcast
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
    • Podcast
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Home » Oxygen Exposure Linked to Pulmonary Hypertension in Preterm Babies
Uncategorized

Oxygen Exposure Linked to Pulmonary Hypertension in Preterm Babies

By Roger AndersonMar 22, 2013
Share
Facebook Twitter Email
Kathryn Farrow, MD, PhD, associate professor in pediatrics-neonatology, has demonstrated that exposure to high levels of oxygen, a common treatment for persistent pulmonary hypertension in newborns, may in fact be detrimental to their health.

In the smallest of humans, Kathryn Farrow, MD, PhD, associate professor in pediatrics-neonatology, finds enormous motivation. 

“All it takes is for me to help that one child, get really close to that one family, and I am back in the lab with fervor,” said Farrow, a physician-scientist who works in the Pediatric Cardiopulmonary Disease Laboratory and as a neonatologist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. “The translational value of my investigations drives me to think ‘maybe we can save the next one, too.’” 

Building on Northwestern Medicine® research published last year in Antioxidants and Redox Signaling, Farrow studies pulmonary hypertension – abnormally high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs – in preterm infants. 

Of the smallest babies – those weighing about two pounds or less – 40 percent will develop a chronic lung disease and approximately one in three will develop associated pulmonary hypertension. Infants who fall victim to both face a 50 percent chance of dying before the age of two. 

“When babies are born very premature, their lungs are not fully developed, and as smaller and younger babies are surviving, we are seeing a subset of those babies also develop pulmonary hypertension,” Farrow said. “This is an issue that we’ve only recognized in the past five to 10 years and we don’t know why the ones who develop it get it, and we don’t know how to treat it. That’s in large part because we don’t know if it is like pulmonary hypertension in an older child, pulmonary hypertension in an adult, or something completely different.” 

Scientific Pursuit

Recently, Farrow’s lab has focused on the signaling pathway involving cyclic GMP, a critical mediator for relaxing the pulmonary arteries. If the body is unable to relax those blood vessels, as in babies with chronic lung disease, they become remodeled and the heart begins to fail over time. 

“We are looking at cells isolated from the pulmonary arteries, the vessels that get diseased, and what we were surprised to find is that with very short exposure to oxygen, the signaling pathways that are important for relaxing those vessels get completely dysregulated,” Farrow said. “This has huge impact for us clinically, because babies with this lung disease often sit in oxygen-rich environments for months.” 

Using neonatal mouse models, Farrow’s group determined that expose to extremely high levels of oxygen for just 24 hours caused the signaling pathways to be disrupted for 13 days. Preterm babies are often exposed to moderately high oxygen levels for a month or more, and Farrow theorizes that this may exacerbate pulmonary hypertension. If correct, her work may change the way newborns get treated. 

“In this era of resource utilization, it would be good if we could either prevent these kids from getting sick, or adequately treat them once they do,” she said. “If a baby leaves the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) in good condition, they have their whole lives in front of them.” 

Looking for Answers

And while her lab continues to work on discovering why preterm babies develop pulmonary hypertension, she has formed numerous collaborations with scientists looking into who gets the disease in the first place. 

One of those successful partnerships is with Karen Mestan, MD, assistant professor in pediatrics-neonatology. Mestan started the NICU cord blood study at Prentice Women’s Hospital, collecting umbilical cord blood samples from all premature infants. Mestan’s lab is working to develop a panel of markers to help determine which babies are going to develop the disease.

Patient Care Research
Share. Facebook Twitter Email

Related Posts

Epigenetic Biomarkers Predict CVD Risk

Jun 28, 2022

Hospitals Bound to Patient Safety Rules that Aren’t all Backed by Evidence

Jun 24, 2022

Identifying Protein Interactions that Promote Cancer Growth

Jun 24, 2022

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Epigenetic Biomarkers Predict CVD Risk

Jun 28, 2022

Student Spearheads Ukraine Aid Efforts

Jun 27, 2022

Hospitals Bound to Patient Safety Rules that Aren’t all Backed by Evidence

Jun 24, 2022

Identifying Protein Interactions that Promote Cancer Growth

Jun 24, 2022

Combination Treatment May Improve Quality of Life in Kidney Cancer

Jun 23, 2022
  • News Center Home
  • Categories
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
  • News Archives
  • About Us
Flickr Photos
20220617_NM_0434
20220617_NM_0858
20220617_NM_0643
20220617_NM_0835
20220617_NM_0544
20220617_NM_0450
20220617_NM_0790
20220617_NM_0811
20220617_NM_0851
20220617_NM_0696
20220617_NM_0779
20220617_NM_0838

Northwestern University logo

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

RSS Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr YouTube Instagram
Copyright © 2022 Northwestern University
  • Contact Northwestern University
  • Disclaimer
  • Campus Emergency Information
  • Policy Statements

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.