美国西雅图儿童研究所Vittorio Gallo课题组宣布他们揭示了内在的妊娠时间支配着早产后人类小脑的发育。这一研究成果于2026年10月29日发表在国际顶尖学术期刊《科学》上。

固有程序塑造大脑成熟；然而，其中哪些程序会被早产扰动，以及涉及哪些分子通路，仍不清楚。人类小脑是宫外发育的范例——其加速生长和回路形成与妊娠晚期相一致，而这一时期会被早产打断。研究人员利用涵盖在体神经影像和神经发育结局以及死后空间转录组学和组织病理学分析的多模态数据集，表明早产使小脑发育轨迹发生偏离。尽管围产期暴露具有调节作用，小脑生长和功能结局仍随胎龄变化。宏观轨迹背后的空间分辨发育程序以颗粒细胞成熟不完全和浦肯野细胞结构精细塑造受损为标志，表明存在谱系特异性发育不同步。因此，早产构成一种生物学上偏移的成熟，其中相同月经后年龄的婴儿处于不同的发育状态。

附：英文原文

Title: Intrinsic gestational timing governs human cerebellar development after preterm birth

Author: Georgios Sanidas, Gabriele Simonti, Javid Ghaemmaghami, Kyla Woyshner, Antonis Polyviou, Robinson Vidva, Courtney Lowe, Abhya Vij, Daniel Bittel, Maria Triantafyllou, Nora Wolff, Rodolfo Cardenas, Helen Chen, Francisco Almeida, Sniya Sudhakar, Kshitij Mankad, Ioannis Koutroulis, Henrik Sahlin Pettersen, Genevieve Stein-O’Brien, Dimitrios N. Sidiropoulos, Vittorio Gallo, Panagiotis Kratimenos

Issue&Volume: 2026-10-29

Abstract: Intrinsic programs shape brain maturation; however, which of these programs are perturbed by prematurity as well as the molecular pathways involved remain unknown. The human cerebellum serves as a paradigm of extrauterine development—its accelerated growth and circuit formation align with the third trimester, a period disrupted by preterm delivery. Using multimodal datasets encompassing in vivo neuroimaging and neurodevelopmental outcomes with postmortem spatial-transcriptomic and histopathological profiling, we show that prematurity diverts the cerebellar developmental trajectory. Cerebellar growth and functional outcomes scaled with gestational age, despite modifying perinatal exposures. Spatially resolved developmental programs underlying macroscopic trajectories were marked by incomplete granule cell maturation and impaired Purkinje cell structural refinement, which indicate lineage-specific developmental asynchrony. Thus, prematurity constitutes biologically displaced maturation, in which infants of equivalent postmenstrual age occupy divergent developmental states.

DOI: 10.1126/science.aeb9095

Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeb9095