11.12.2025

Preterm infants face a high risk of brain injury after cerebral haemorrhage, a condition that often leads to long-term neurological difficulties. Researchers at Malmö University and partner institutions have developed a 3D human-cell model that recreates vulnerable brain regions and helps identify the mechanisms contributing to this damage.

The image shows a man standing in a laboratory setting; Copyright: Malmö University

The 3D human-cell model enables researchers to examine how cerebral haemorrhage affects vulnerable brain regions and disrupts neural stem cell development in preterm infants.

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Recreating the vulnerable SVZ region

The research team recreated the subventricular zone (SVZ), a critical and sensitive brain region. The SVZ contains immature and fragile blood vessels. When these vessels rupture, blood enters the brain’s ventricles, causing IVH.
Researchers explain that the SVZ is also a key site of neural stem cell formation. Cerebral haemorrhage disrupts this process because toxic blood components spread into surrounding tissue. One of these components, haemoglobin, plays a major role. As Magnus Gram states, “The haemoglobin in the blood is a strong oxidant and acts a bit like a “rusting agent” in the brain.”

Understanding injuries on a molecular level

The team’s work enables detailed mapping of the mechanisms that harm neural stem cells following haemorrhage. “We have managed to create a model where we can look at how these injuries develop in following cerebral haemorrhage and thus map the mechanisms and molecules that influence the process.”

Gram notes the clinical relevance of these insights: “This is an important step on the way to finding a treatment that can help these children.” The 3D model allows researchers to track how toxic blood breakdown products impair brain development and to examine molecular responses across large numbers of human-derived cells.

Advantages over previous methods

Until now, studies relied largely on cerebrospinal fluid samples from infants or on animal models in which haemorrhage was induced. Both approaches have limitations. Gram explains, “The advantage of this compared to animal models is that we are looking at human cells, and that the model is reproducible and we can manipulate factors in a completely different way.”

MEDICA-tradefair.com; Source: Malmö University

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