UW study explores link between hormones, SIDS deaths
The leading cause of infant death in all developed countries is sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Why this tragic killer strikes is unknown, though death is thought to be the result of respiratory arrest, perhaps due to the infant’s immature breathing system.
In April, UW medical student Michael Emery published the first experiment that links infant steroid hormones to breathing patterns during sleep. All newborns have a sharp increase in gonadal hormone production between the first and fourth month of life. Males produce androgens, primarily testosterone, and females produce estrogens, primarily estradiol.
Significantly, newborns have a very low risk for SIDS. The highest incidence comes between the first and fourth month, when gonadal steroid levels are also at their peak. In addition, SIDS victims almost always die at night, when these steroids are at their highest level.
Emery tested the link with primates from the UW Regional Primate Center. He found that if infant primates received testosterone and then had extra carbon dioxide pumped into their sleeping chamber, their ability to adapt their breathing to these new levels was weakened. Emery says this research is highly speculative, but if a link can be confirmed, someday physicians may be able to predict and perhaps even prevent these heartbreaking deaths.