Brain abnormalities which affect breathing and temperature control could increase a baby's risk of cot death, a study has suggested.
Researchers from the Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School found infants who died of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) had flaws in their brainstem. The team said this meant the babies were unable to process the brain chemical serotonin. Around 300 babies under the age of one die each year in the UK from SIDS.
The US team were building on previous research which had also suggested there were faults within the brains of babies who die from SIDS which make them more vulnerable to factors such as infection or overheating. In this study, they compared tissue from 31 babies who had died from SIDS with 10 who had died of other causes between 1997 and 2005.
The lower brainstem helps control heart rate and blood pressure as well as breathing. The researchers found that brainstems from babies affected by SIDS contained more nerve cells that make and use serotonin than the brainstems of the other infants. But there were fewer serotonin receptors in SIDS babies' brains, meaning they could not process the brain chemical as they should.
Dr Hannah Kinney, who led the research, said: "These findings provide evidence that SIDS is not a mystery but a disorder that we can investigate with scientific methods, and some day, may be able to identify and treat."
A spokeswoman for the Foundation for the Study of Infant Deaths said: "The findings in the new paper are important, taken with previous reports. But this is unlikely to be the only inherited or non-modifiable risk factor."
She added, "....much more research is needed in order to understand and, ultimately, prevent these tragedies, which claim about 300 babies' lives each year in the UK."
Advice
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