Postnatal hypoxia evokes persistent changes within the male rat’s dopaminergic system

Purpose Hypoxic insults occurring during the perinatal period remain the leading cause of permanent brain impairment. Severe cognitive and motor dysfunction, as seen in cerebral palsy, will occur in 4–10% of post-hypoxic newborns. Subtle cognitive impairment, apparent in disorders of minimal brain dysfunction will occur in > 3 million post-hypoxic newborns. Analyses of post-hypoxic rodent brains reveal reduced extracellular levels of dopamine, a key neurotransmitter of vigilance, execute function, and behavior. The purpose of this study was to assess whether synaptic levels of dopamine could be enhanced in post-hypoxic, hypodopaminergic rats.