Doping Hormone Erythropoietin can Prevent Brain Damage in Preterm Babies

Erythropoietin - a hormone used by athletes to boost performance - can help prevent brain damage in preterm babies.

Scientists at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the University Hospital of Geneva (HUG) say that three doses of the blood doping drug administered immediately after birth can reduce brain damage in babies.

Preterm babies - those who are born before 37 weeks of pregnancy - are at a higher risk of several health complications and are more likely to suffer a brain damage than full term babies.

Erythropoietin is a hormone that stimulates the formation of red blood cells. Synthetic erythropoietin (EPO) is also used to treat anemia and even reduce need for blood transfusions in preterm infants. Related research has shown that the hormone also protects neurons.

Data for the research came from 495 infants who were part of a randomized, double-blind study conducted in Switzerland between 2005 and 2012.

The researchers reviewed MRI scans of 165 children, half of whom had been given three doses of EPO within two days of birth.

"We found that the brains of the children who had received the treatment had much less damage than those in the control group, who had been given a placebo," explained Russia Ha-Vinh Leuchter, co-author of the study, according to a news release. "This is the first time that the beneficial effect of the EPO hormone on the brains of premature babies has been shown."

This is just a preliminary study. The researchers plan on further evaluating the neurocognitive development of these children. Participants will be given tests at the age of two and five years.

"State-of-the-art developmental testing as performed in our Swiss Developmental Pediatric units should confirm the effect that EPO treatment has on the neurodevelopmental disabilities that very premature babies often show during their infancy." said Petra Susan Hüppi, professor in the Faculty of Medicine at UNIGE. "If this does turn out to be the case, we will have taken an important step in preventing brain damage and its longterm consequences in premature babies.

The study is published in the Journal of American Medical Association (JAMA).