Maternal corticosteroid therapy and the fetal brain in experimental hyaline membrane disease

The possible acute deleterious effects of maternal glucocorticoid administration on the fetal nervous system and the pathologic significance of sudanophilic lipids in glial cells were studied in the premature pigtail monkey (macaca mulatta). At 72, 48, and 24 h before delivery at 135 +/- 1 d gestation, dams were treated with either 4 mg dexamethasone or saline. After delivery, respiratory function of each fetus was determined and supported. The animals were sacrificed at 3 h of age. Brain weights were similar in the two groups. Dark, shrunken, pyknotic neurons were present in the hippocampus of three treated and two control animals. Lipid-containing glial cells were present in all animals. Neither appeared to be related to steroid treatment or to the degree of respiratory distress. We conclude that short-term glucocorticoid therapy in doses analogous to those used in humans for the prevention of hyaline membrane disease does not result in acute neuronal damage. Sudanophilic lipid accumulation in glial cells is not always abnormal and must be distinguished from glial fatty metamorphosis.