Inflammation during childhood may interfere with the development of important brain cells, according to research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
The finding could help scientists better understand why early inflammation has been linked in previous research to developmental conditions involving the brain.
Inflammation is part of the body’s natural defense system. It helps fight infections and respond to injury, but when inflammation is severe or lasts too long, it can sometimes affect healthy tissues as well.
The developing brain may be especially sensitive to these effects. Brain development begins before birth and continues through childhood and adolescence as billions of nerve cells form connections that support movement, learning, language, emotions and behavior.
The researchers focused on the cerebellum, a region at the back of the brain that is best known for helping control movement and balance. Scientists now know that it also contributes to thinking, language, emotions and social behavior.
To investigate the effects of inflammation, the team studied brain tissue from children who had died while experiencing inflammatory conditions. They compared these samples with tissue from children who had died from accidents and did not have the same inflammatory conditions.
Using advanced methods that allowed them to examine activity inside individual cells, the scientists identified changes in two important types of nerve cells in the cerebellum. These cells are known as Golgi neurons and Purkinje neurons.
Golgi neurons help control signals passing through networks of brain cells. Purkinje neurons are among the most important cells in the cerebellum and help process information before sending signals to other parts of the brain.
In children who had experienced inflammation, these neurons showed signs that their normal development had been disrupted. The findings suggest that inflammation may change the way some brain cells mature during important periods of childhood development.
This is potentially important because differences in the cerebellum have been studied in connection with conditions such as autism and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Both are neurodevelopmental conditions, meaning they involve differences in how the brain develops and functions.
Autism can affect communication, social interaction, behavior and the way a person experiences the world. ADHD commonly affects attention, impulse control and activity levels, although both conditions vary greatly from one person to another.
The new research does not show that inflammation causes autism or ADHD. These conditions are complex and are thought to develop through a mixture of genetic, biological and environmental influences rather than from one single cause.
Instead, the study provides a possible biological clue about how strong inflammation during an important stage of brain development could affect particular cells. Understanding that process may eventually help researchers identify children who are especially vulnerable to the effects of inflammation.
The findings could also guide future studies looking for ways to protect the developing brain during serious inflammatory illnesses. However, much more research is needed before scientists can know whether preventing or reducing inflammation would change a child’s risk of developing a neurodevelopmental condition.
The study was published in the journal Science Translational Medicine. By showing how inflammation is associated with changes in specific developing brain cells, the research offers another piece of the much larger puzzle of how childhood brain development can be influenced by illness and the immune system.
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