Neonatal Stress Response Research Articles

Local Anesthesia for Neonatal Circumcision,-Reply

In Reply.— We appreciate Dr Weiss' interest in our article. We find it somewhat incongruous to say that it is a questionable assumption that neonates experience pain and then to give suggestions on treating postoperative pain. There is a great volume of peer-reviewed scientific data available regarding pain in the newborn. With more than 200 references, Anand and Hickey 1 review the development of neuropathways for pain prior to 13 to 14 weeks' gestation, which are completed by 30 weeks, the newborn's response to painful stimuli, and the attenuation effect of anesthesia on the neonatal stress response. Fitzgerald, 2 who is quoted by Dr Weiss, states that despite an infant's lack of ability to report pain, neural mechanisms capable of reacting to tissue injury are clearly present. The American Academy of Pediatrics 3 recently has issued a strong policy statement on the use of neonatal anesthesia for newborn surgeries. In

Genetic variation of neonatal stress response to reduced temperature brooding in a randombred population of chickens.

Chicks from a randombred population were assessed for genetic variation in 1-day body weight and serum corticosterone under two brooding temperatures (26.7 and 32.2 C). Brooding at 26.7 C resulted in lower 1-day body weights and higher corticosterone levels. Heritability estimates (h2) for 1-day body weight were moderately high in both temperature groups but were low for gain in both temperatures. The h2 for corticosterone level from chicks brooded at 26.7 C was moderate, whereas estimates for those brooded at 32.2 were very low. Statistically significant (but low) negative phenotypic correlations were obtained for corticosterone with body weight and gain in both temperature groups. A significant negative genotypic correlation was observed between corticosterone and body weight for chicks brooded at 26.7 C but not for those brooded at 32.2 C. Corticosterone data from the highest and lowest responding sire families revealed a significant response group by temperature interaction. Chicks from the first of two additional hatches showed significant response group differences in serum corticosterone to the reduced brooding temperature. The neonatal serum corticosterone response to cold stress has a genetic basis; however, because there was a negative genotypic correlation between serum corticosterone and body weight, selection for increased corticosterone levels under reduced temperature brooding would likely result in decreased body size.