The association of Neonatal Asphyxia with serum levels of Heat Shock Protein 27 in a small sample of newborns

Perinatal asphyxia is a state of hypoxia and hypercapnia caused by failure to breathe spontaneously soon after birth. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) play a key role in maintenance of normal cell metabolism and function since there was no study investigating the relationship between neonatal asphyxia and HSP27, the present study was undertaken to determine whether there is a relation between serum levels of HSP27 and neonatal asphyxia in a small sample of newborns.Methods: In this case-control study, cases were 25 newborns with neonatal asphyxia diagnosed at Imam Reza Hospital, Mashhad, Iran. Controls were 25 normal newborns with no symptoms of neonatal asphyxia. Serum Hsp-27 antigen concentrations were determined using a sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) in-house. The data were subjected to statistical evaluation using IBM SPSS, version 19 and p value less than 0.05 considered significant Results: Out of 50 infants, 23 (46%) were male and 27 (54%) were female. the mean birth weight of newborns in the case and control groups were 3110.47±613.5 g and 3230.4±584.83 g, respectively (p=0.45). The mean Apgar score was significantly lower in the case group as compared to the control group (5.6±1.7 vs 9.6±1.2) p=0.005Although the level of HSP27 was higher in the case group than control group (0.23±0.08 vs 0.19±0.09), but no statistically significant difference was observed between two groups (p=0.09)Conclusion; In the present study, levels of HSP27 were found to be higher in newborns with perinatal asphyxia compared with control subjects but it was not statically significant

Keywords:

Asphyxia , Heat shock protein , Neonats.