Research Information
by the CJ Foundation

Project Title: Nicotine and Neonatal Death in Hypoxia

Investigator: Owen Bamford, PhD, Johns Hopkins Center, Baltimore, Maryland

Project Purpose: It has recently been shown that newborn rat pups exposed to low oxygen levels (hypoxia) during the first week of postnatal life are more likely to die if they were exposed to nicotine before birth. Dr. Bamford has proposed that long-term exposure to nicotine before birth alters the development of the fetal nervous system in a way that makes the newborn less able to respond to hypoxia, and that this deficiency then makes the infant rat or human more vulnerable during a critical period of development. This hypothesis will be tested by exposing fetal rats to nicotine throughout pregnancy. Their changes in breathing, metabolism and heart rate in response to hypoxia will then be measured, and compared with responses from non-exposed rats. These studies will be performed during the first week of postnatal life, in order to examine effects of nicotine on early development of breathing control.

Dr. Bamford will also investigate the effects of nicotine exposure on the development of the carotid body chemoreceptors, a crucial link in the response to hypoxia. If nicotine does not affect breathing responses or the development of the carotid bodies, then if must affect survival in hypoxia by some other route. In addition, the study will investigate the effects of prenatal nicotine exposure on the postnatal development of body temperature regulation.

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