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Gestational Age at Birth and Brain White Matter Development in Term-Born Infants and Children
X Ou1,2,3,4, C M Glasier5,2,4, R H Ramakrishnaiah5,4
1From the Departments of Radiology (X.O., C.M.G., R.H.R., A.K., A.C.R.) ouxiawei@uams.edu.
Insights
Longer gestation in term infants is linked to better white matter development, indicated by higher fractional anisotropy and lower diffusivity. These associations fade by age eight, suggesting critical early developmental windows.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Pediatric Imaging
Background:
- Gestational length is crucial for preterm infant brain white matter development.
- The impact of gestational age variations within the term range on white matter development is less understood.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the association between gestational age at birth and white matter microstructure in term-born infants and children.
- To investigate if this association persists into later childhood.
Main Methods:
- Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and tract-based spatial statistics were used to analyze white matter in 2-week-old infants and 8-year-old children.
- Key DTI parameters (fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, radial diffusivity) were calculated and correlated with gestational age at birth.
- Postnatal age and sex were controlled for as potential confounders.
Main Results:
- In term infants, higher gestational age correlated positively with fractional anisotropy (white matter integrity) and negatively with mean, axial, and radial diffusivity (indicators of axonal growth and myelination).
- These correlations were significant across most major white matter tracts.
- No significant correlations between gestational age at birth and white matter parameters were found in the 8-year-old children.
Conclusions:
- Longer gestation within the normal term period is associated with enhanced white matter development in infancy.
- These effects on white matter development related to gestational age are not evident in later childhood, highlighting sensitive developmental periods.
Background And Purpose:
Studies on infants and children born preterm have shown that adequate gestational length is critical for brain white matter development. Less is known regarding how variations in gestational age at birth in term infants and children affect white matter development, which was evaluated in this study.
Materials And Methods:
Using DTI tract-based spatial statistics methods, we evaluated white matter microstructures in 2 groups of term-born (≥37 weeks of gestation) healthy subjects: 2-week-old infants (n = 44) and 8-year-old children (n = 63). DTI parameters including fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity were calculated by voxelwise and ROI methods and were correlated with gestational age at birth, with potential confounding factors such as postnatal age and sex controlled.
Results:
Fractional anisotropy values, which are markers for white matter microstructural integrity, positively correlated (P < .05, corrected) with gestational age at birth in most major white matter tracts/regions for the term infants. Mean diffusivity values, which are measures of water diffusivities in the brain, and axial and radial diffusivity values, which are markers for axonal growth and myelination, respectively, negatively correlated (P < .05, corrected) with gestational age at birth in all major white matter tracts/regions excluding the body and splenium of the corpus callosum for the term infants. No significant correlations with gestational age were observed for any tracts/regions for the term-born 8-year-old children.
Conclusions:
Our results indicate that longer gestation during the normal term period is associated with significantly greater infant white matter development (as reflected by higher fractional anisotropy and lower mean diffusivity, axial diffusivity, and radial diffusivity values); however, similar associations were not observable in later childhood.
