The Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilites

Comparative Study of the Administration of Different Dosages of Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF-2) in Mental Retardation.

10th World Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilites.
8 – 13 July 1996; Helsinki, Finland.

The Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 (FGF-2) has shown neurotrophic effect in neurons of several areas of CNS including the cortex, hippocampus, striatum, etc.

In patients with mental retardation (MR) an increase in mental development (MD) was observed when FGF was administered at dosages of 0.28 µg/kg.

The main side effects observed in this study were headaches and irritability (Aguilar et al., Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 1993).

With the intention of finding a dosage capable of the simulating the MD, with reduced side effects, we analyzed a dosage of 0.2 µg/kg which was administered every two weeks for 12 months.

The results were compared through t-test with previous control and experimental groups.

Two groups were formed; a) n=14. 0-4 years, both sexes, b) n=11, 5-8 years, and matched in age, sex and development quotient with previous groups.

The psychometric evaluation was carried out with gesell scale at 0, 6, and 12 months.

A significant ( P < 0.3 ) increase in MD was observed at 12 months for group A (7.75 +/- 0.6 SEM, expressed in months) and for B (8.94 +/- 0.6) respect to untreated controls (controls of group A 3.91 +/- 0.7, controls of group B 4.2 +/- 1.4); but in both cases this was less than in treated groups with major dosages already reported, with values of 9.26 +/- 1.2 for 0-4 years and 9.42 +/- 1.1 for 5-8 years.

The analysis of quantitative EEG showed a significant ( P < 0.001 ) increase of absolute power in delta and theta bands for groups treated 0.28 µg/kg at 6 months evaluation and a significant ( P < 0.001) reduction at 12 months with respect to 6 months and no significant differences between 0 and 12 months evaluation.

In the groups that were treated with dosages of 0.02 µg/kg no significant changes were observed at 6 or 12 months with respect to initial evaluations, the number of inter hemispheric asymmetries of delta (0.28 and 0.02 µg/kg), the headache and irritability were practically absent, only two patients showed a very slight irritability for the three days after the first three applications.


The Fibroblast Growth Factor (FGF-2) Improves Dyslexia in Children with Perinatal Hypoxia Antecedents

10th World Congress of the International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual Disabilites.
8 – 13 July 1996; Helsinki, Finland.

Fibroblast Growth Factor 2 (FGF-2) ameliorates learning deficits in basal-forebrain injured mice, in mentally retarded patients it improved mental developmental (Aguilar et al., Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 1993).

We report here the FGF-2 therapy in children with dyslexia, in whom comprehensive and visual-spatial deficits were observed. 30 patients (all of them with a history of perinatal hypoxia) of both sexes, ranging in age from 8-12 years were separated into two groups, were evaluated with quantified EEG and visual evoked potentials (VEP), and recorded at rest.

Both absolute power (AP) and relative power (RP), were analyzed for 4 bands, the VEP were submitted to analysis of energy ratio (ER) and Pearson coefficient (PC) for 50-200 and 200-400 ms segments.

Visual-motor maturation was evaluated using Bender and scored according to Koppits, the reading skills were also scored, measuring speed (words/min) and quantifying mistakes.
FGF-2 was administered at a dosage of 0.02 µg/kg of body weight every two weeks for 12 months to the treated group (TG n=15).

The untreated dyslexic group (UG n=15) did not receive therapy or placebo.

The AP in the initial study showed increase in delta and theta bands in all regions and in Alfa band in F3, F4, T5, T6, the RP was increased in occipital areas for delta and theta and reduced for Alfa in both dyslexic groups, when compared to healthy controls.

At the end of the study a significant decrease of AP was observed ( p < 0.3 ) and in p3, p4 , o2, t4, t5 and t6 for delta and in all areas for theta, while no changes in Alfa band beta bands were observed in the TG. The RP decreased significantly for theta band in f3, f4, c3 and c4 in the TG, in UG a slight but not significant improvement was observed.

The VEP study showed significant ( p < 0.001 ) reduction of asymmetries in PC and ER in 01-02, P3-P4, whereas T5-Y6 only improved in 65% of the TG, the UG did not show significant changes.

The visual-motor maturation after the treatment period was 165.45 +/- 34.9% ( X +/- SEM ) in the TG, whereas in the UG it was 58.80 +/- 2.65 P < 0.0001

The reading evaluation showed an increase in speed and fewer mistakes in TG when compared to the UT.

These results show an important improvement of dyslexic children when treated with FGF2.

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