The Serotonin Brainstem Hypothesis for the Sudden Infant Death Syndrome

Overview

Journal J Neuropathol Exp Neurol

Publisher Oxford University Press

Specialties Neurology
Pathology

Date 2019 Aug 10

PMID 31397480

Citations 33

Authors

Hannah C Kinney

Robin L Haynes

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the leading cause of postneonatal infant mortality in the United States today, with an overall rate of 0.39/1000 live births. It is defined as the sudden and unexpected death of an infant <12 months of age that remains unexplained after a complete autopsy, death scene investigation, and review of the clinical history. The serotonin brainstem hypothesis has been a leading hypothesis for SIDS over the last 2 decades. Our laboratory has studied this hypothesis over time with a variety of tissue techniques, including tissue receptor autoradiography, high performance liquid chromatography, Western blot analysis, immunocytochemistry, and proteomics. The purpose of this article is to review the progress in our laboratory toward supporting this hypothesis. We conclude that an important subset of SIDS infants has serotonergic abnormalities resulting from a "core lesion" in the medullary reticular formation comprised of nuclei that contain serotonin neurons. This lesion could lead to a failure of protective brainstem responses to homeostatic challenges during sleep in a critical developmental period which cause sleep-related sudden death.

Citing Articles

The vicious spiral in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Opdal S, Stray-Pedersen A, Eidahl J, Vege A, Ferrante L, Rognum T Front Pediatr. 2025; 13:1487000.

PMID: 40013115 PMC: 11862695. DOI: 10.3389/fped.2025.1487000.

Genetic Association Study of Acetylcholinesterase () and Butyrylcholinesterase () Variants in Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Qu D, Schurmann P, Rothamel T, Dork T, Klintschar M Genes (Basel). 2025; 15(12.

PMID: 39766923 PMC: 11727802. DOI: 10.3390/genes15121656.

Raphe and ventrolateral medulla proteomics in sudden unexplained death in childhood with febrile seizure history.

Leitner D, William C, Faustin A, Kanshin E, Snuderl M, McGuone D Acta Neuropathol. 2024; 148(1):76.

PMID: 39607506 PMC: 11604820. DOI: 10.1007/s00401-024-02832-9.

New Step in Understanding the Pathogenetic Mechanism of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Involvement of the Pontine Reticular Gigantocellular Nucleus.

Lavezzi A, Mehboob R, Piscioli F, Pusiol T Int J Mol Sci. 2024; 25(13).

PMID: 39000030 PMC: 11241803. DOI: 10.3390/ijms25136920.

Known pathogenic gene variants and new candidates detected in sudden unexpected infant death using whole genome sequencing.

Bard A, Clark L, Cosgun E, Aldinger K, Timms A, Quina L Am J Med Genet A. 2024; 194(11):e63596.

PMID: 38895864 PMC: 11706325. DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.a.63596.

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