The effect of chronic prenatal hypoxia on the development of mature neurons in the cerebellum

Background Adverse intrauterine circumstances can result in abnormal brain development, and can contribute to many neurological disorders such as cerebral palsy and cognitive and behavioral deficits. These neurological problems are caused by conditions that cause chronic placental insufficiency (CPI), such as hypoxia and acidemia. Hypoxia has been implicated in structural alterations of the cerebellum during development; however, the changes to the cerebellar external granular layer (EGL) induced by chronic prenatal hypoxia are not well understood. We therefore investigated the effect of chronic prenatal hypoxia on the development of mature neurons in the EGL using the guinea pig CPI model.