Six Hours of Hydrogen Gas Inhalation Has a Neuroprotective Effect Even in Piglets with Delayed Functional Recovery

• Published in: Developmental neuroscience p. 1
• Main Authors: Sugiyama, Yuichiro, Htun, Yinmon, Inoue, Eri, Nakamura, Shinji, Tsuchiya, Toui, Nakao, Yasuhiro, Mitsuie, Tsutomu, Yokota, Takayuki, Sakamoto, Kosuke, Inoue, Kota, Morimoto, Aya, Ohta, Ken-Ichi, Morita, Hirosuke, Kondo, Sonoko, Koyano, Kosuke, Tanaka, Aya, Miki, Takanori, Ueno, Masaki, Kusaka, Takashi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland 07.07.2025
• Subjects: Hydrogen gas; Piglet; Amplitude-integrated EEG; Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy
• ISSN: 1421-9859
• DOI: 10.1159/000546831

Combined therapeutic hypothermia (TH) and 24-h hydrogen (H ) gas inhalation reduces seizure burden in piglets in the latent phase of hypoxic-ischemic (HI) injury versus TH alone. Nevertheless, the effects of H gas in the earliest phase following resuscitation were unclear. After HI insult, 17 piglets ≤24 h old were divided into a HI insult group (HI, n = 8) and a HI and H gas group (HI-H , 2.1%-2.7% H gas, 6 h, n = 9). Time to recovery to a normal amplitude-integrated electroencephalogram background (RT-aEEG) was examined for 6 h after HI insult and undamaged neurons were counted. The duration of low-amplitude (<5 μV) EEG after insult was not different between the two groups. Undamaged neuron numbers were significantly higher in the HI-H group than in the HI group (p < 0.01), although RT-aEEG was not different. Six hours of H gas inhalation initiated from resuscitation significantly increased the number of undamaged neurons compared to the untreated group, although there was no difference in RT-aEEG. Six hours of hydrogen gas inhalation exerts a neuroprotective effect even in piglets with delayed functional recovery.