Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

An estimated 29 000 infants are born premature (<37 weeks) in Canada each year. Infants born extremely premature (<28 weeks) have lungs that are too weak to support their own breathing. The only life-saving option available is to administer oxygen and mechanically ventilate their lungs. Close to 40% of premature infants receiving this treatment develop a life-threatening disease called bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD). Infants with BPD have underdeveloped, weak lungs compared to healthy full-term babies. Babies with BPD are also at a high risk of brain damage, which can lead to difficulties walking, seeing, hearing, and learning. The most common brain injury occurs around the ventricles, one of the main areas where brain stem cells are found after birth. Brain stem cells are important because they can make new brain cells. It is unknown whether brain stem cells are damaged in BPD. To date, there is no treatment for BPD. Our lab has shown that stem cells from human umbilical cord can protect the lungs in a BPD rodent model. The purpose of this project is to determine whether brain stem cells are injured in a BPD mouse model and if so, to test whether human umbilical cord stem cell therapy can protect not only the lungs, but also the brain. To this end, we will compare the brain stem cells from our BPD-like mice with those from normal, healthy mice. We will also investigate whether brain stem cell injury correlates with deficits in learning and motor function by using mouse behavioural tests. In the final set of experiments, we will test whether umbilical cord stem cells prevent lung and brain injury in our BPD mouse model, so as to preserve normal behavioural function. This study will be the first to examine brain stem cells to explain the link between BPD and brain damage. Further, this work may provide a strong rationale for testing umbilical cord stem cell therapy in the clinic to reduce the life-threatening complications of extreme prematurity.