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The response of malnourished babies to cold
Insights
Malnourished children exhibit impaired cold response due to reduced heat production and altered brown fat metabolism. Nutritional recovery significantly improves thermoregulation and metabolic function in pediatric subjects.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Nutrition
- Environmental Physiology
- Thermogenesis
Background:
- Malnutrition in infants and children can impact physiological responses to environmental stressors.
- Cold exposure is a significant challenge for vulnerable pediatric populations.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effect of malnutrition on the cold response in Jamaican children.
- To assess thermoregulatory capacity before and after nutritional rehabilitation.
Main Methods:
- Studied twelve malnourished children (4-16 months) before and after treatment.
- Assessed oxygen consumption, heart rate, body temperature, and peripheral blood flow at neutral and cold (25°C) temperatures.
- Examined interscapular brown fat post-mortem in malnourished and well-nourished children.
Main Results:
- Malnourished children had lower oxygen consumption, slower pulse, lower body temperature, and reduced peripheral blood flow compared to recovered children.
- Malnourished children failed to increase heat production at 25°C, leading to a drop in rectal temperature.
- Recovered children maintained normal body temperature and increased heat production by 20% via non-shivering thermogenesis.
- Autopsy revealed lipid depletion in the interscapular brown fat of malnourished children, suggesting impaired metabolic activity.
Conclusions:
- Malnutrition significantly impairs the pediatric response to cold, primarily due to insufficient thermogenesis.
- Interscapular brown fat lipid depletion in malnourished children likely contributes to their reduced ability to generate heat.
- Nutritional recovery restores thermoregulatory capacity and improves brown fat function in children.
Abstract:
1. Twelve malnourished Jamaican children, aged 4-16 months, were studied before and after treatment, to see whether malnutrition impaired their response to cold.2. When they were studied in the post-absorptive state and in a neutral thermal environment, they had a lower rate of oxygen consumption per kg body weight, a slower pulse rate, lower body temperatures, lower R.Q., and evidence of a smaller peripheral blood flow on admission to hospital than they did after recovery.3. The malnourished children failed to increase their heat production above resting levels at 25 degrees C, and their rectal temperature fell at a rate of 1 degrees C/hr in spite of a further decrease in peripheral circulation.4. When they had recovered they maintained their body temperature within the normal range on exposure to this temperature, while increasing their heat production by 20%. The thermogenesis was apparently of the non-shivering type.5. There was evidence of increased metabolic activity in the interscapular brown fat pad at 25 degrees C both on admission and before discharge. In the malnourished children this activity was not sufficient to produce a measurable increase in total oxygen consumption.6. Interscapular brown fat was examined at autopsy in thirteen malnourished and fifteen well nourished children aged 1-24 months. Lipid depletion was found in this tissue in the former but not in the latter. This may explain the impaired response of the malnourished child to cold.