Histopathological features seen 24 hours after birth in the brain of lambs born at full term, preterm, or after UCO at 132 days gestation.

Neuropathology features were divided into 4 categories: (1) Cell death/damage (2) White matter abnormalities (3) Inflammation and (4) Vascular Integrity. Brain sections were examined using light microscopy at 400x or 1000x magnification following staining with Hematoxylin-Eosin or Luxol Fast Blue. Immunohistochemical staining was with albumin (blood brain barrier permeability) or GFAP (astrocytic marker). Specific scores were given to pathologies seen in the cortical gray and white matter, periventricular white matter, striatum, thalamus and cerebellum and an average score was given to each brain for each pathology. An overall score was then given to each experimental group based on the observed pathologies. Bleeding in the brain 24 hours following birth detected by Mallory’s Trichrome staining. Scores from 0 to 3 were given to each of the pathologies depending on the severity of the pathology. 0 = absent; 1 = mild; 2 = severe. Data are shown as mean ± SEM. Abbreviation: UCO, umbilical cord occlusion.
*p<0.05;
**p<0.01;
***p<0.001 UCO lambs vs full term controls.
§p<0.05;
§§p<0.01 preterm controls vs UCO lambs.