Terry Dean

• MD, PhD
• Medical Doctor at Children's National Medical Center

Neonatal hypoxia (Hx) causes white matter (WM) injury, particularly in the cerebellum. We previously demonstrated that Hx-induced reduction of cerebellar Purkinje cell (PC) activity results in locomotor deficits. Yet, the mechanism of Hx-induced cerebellar WM injury and associated locomotor abnormalities remains undetermined. Here, we show that the...

Background Traumatic brain injury (TBI) causes significant blood-brain barrier (BBB) breakdown, resulting in the extravasation of blood proteins into the brain. The impact of blood proteins, especially fibrinogen, on inflammation and neurodegeneration post-TBI is not fully understood, highlighting a critical gap in our comprehension of TBI patholog...

In critically ill newborns, exposure to hypercapnia (HC) is common and often accepted in neonatal intensive care units to prevent severe lung injury. However, as a “safe” range of arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide levels in neonates has not been established, the potential impact of HC on the neurodevelopmental outcomes in these newborns r...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a significant worldwide cause of morbidity and mortality. A chronic neurologic disease bearing the moniker of “the silent epidemic,” TBI currently has no targeted therapies to ameliorate cellular loss or enhance functional recovery. Compared with those of astrocytes, microglia, and peripheral immune cells, the functi...

The molecular circadian clock can be found throughout the body and is essential for the synchronizing cellular physiology with the 24-hour day. However, the role of the clock in regulating the brain's regenerative potential has not been explored. We report here that murine NG2-glia, the largest population of proliferative cells in the mature centra...

As many as 6% of reported cinnamon poisonings cause significant clinical effects, however, descriptions of pulmonary toxicity have not yet been reported. Here, we present a pediatric patient's hospital course following powdered cinnamon aspiration. The early presentation with hypercapnia and lower airways obstruction evolved to hypoxemic respirator...

As many as 6% of reported cinnamon poisonings cause significant clinical effects, however descriptions of pulmonary toxicity have not yet been reported. Here, we present a pediatric patient’s hospital course following powdered cinnamon aspiration. The early presentation with hypercapnia and lower airways obstructions evolved to hypoxemic respirator...

Microglial surveillance is a key feature of brain physiology and disease. Here, we found that Gi-dependent microglial dynamics prevent neuronal network hyperexcitability. By generating MgPTX mice to genetically inhibit Gi in microglia, we show that sustained reduction of microglia brain surveillance and directed process motility induced spontaneous...

Introduction: Survivors of childhood cancers undergo routine pulmonary function testing as they are at an increased lifetime risk for significant lung disease. However, this population also demonstrates growth abnormalities that could influence the interpretation of these tests, as reference equations are based on standing height. We aim to determ...

We report a case of a six-year-old boy who presented after a cardiac arrest, likely due to a pulmonary hypertensive crisis in the setting of vitamin C deficiency. After initially presenting with subacute multifocal bone lesions of unknown etiology, he experienced a pulseless electrical activity cardiac arrest while undergoing a diagnostic procedure...

Study objectives: Sleep is under the control of homeostatic and circadian processes, which interact to determine sleep timing and duration, but the mechanisms through which the circadian system modulates sleep are largely unknown. We therefore used adult-specific, temporally controlled neuronal activation and inhibition to identify an interaction...

The quiver/sleepless (qvr/sss) gene encodes a small, glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein that plays a critical role in the regulation of sleep in Drosophila. Loss-of-function mutations in qvr/sss severely suppress sleep and effect multiple changes in in situ Shaker K(+) currents, including decreased magnitude, slower time-to-peak, and cum...

The gene quiver/sleepless (qvr/sss) plays a critical role in the regulation of sleep in Drosophila melanogaster . Its protein product SLEEPLESS (SSS) is a small, glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored protein enriched in Drosophila brains. Predicted to belong with the Ly-6/neurotoxin superfamily, SSS is hypothesized to interact with other prot...

Sleep is a whole-organism phenomenon accompanied by global changes in neural activity. We previously identified SLEEPLESS (SSS) as a glycosylphosphatidyl inositol-anchored protein required for sleep in Drosophila. Here we found that SSS is critical for regulating the sleep-modulating potassium channel Shaker. SSS and Shaker shared similar expressio...

Examining different aspects of learning and memory, Claridge-Chang et al. (2009) and Krashes et al. (2009) converge on the same set of neurons in the protocerebral posterior lateral 1 (PPL1) cluster in Drosophila melanogaster. The different roles attributed to PPL1 neurons demonstrate heterogeneity of function in small neuronal subsets of the Droso...

Iron deficiency is considered a putative cause for restless legs syndrome (RLS), a human sensorimotor disorder characterized by a circadian presentation of symptoms during the evening hours that disrupts one's ability to sleep. We sought to evaluate the sleep-wake effects of diet-induced iron deficiency in mice as an animal model of RLS. To this en...

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severely impairs sleep architecture. We hypothesized that both intermittent hypoxia (IH) and non-hypoxic arousals of OSA result in significant disruption of non-rapid eye movement sleep (NREMS) and rapid eye movement sleep (REMS). Polysomnography was performed in C57BL/6J mice (n=5) exposed to IH (cycling of FIO2 from...

Restless legs syndrome produces significant chronic sleep loss, which despite not causing expected profound sleepiness, might nonetheless produce cognitive deficits similar to those seen with acute sleep deprivation, i.e. involving mostly pre-frontal cortical (PFC) functioning. Sixteen patients off RLS treatment for at least 2 weeks and 15 age- and...

The diagnostic criteria for restless legs syndrome (RLS) indicate that both time-of-day and rest effects induce or aggravate symptoms. Periodic limb movements while awake (PLMW) provide an objective motor sign of RLS that can be measured during an awake suggested immobilization test (SIT). This study uses the SIT at different times of the day and a...

We evaluated rest effects on restless legs syndrome (RLS) sensory and motor symptoms. During two 60-minute Suggested Immobilization Tests (SIT) subject's signals of RLS leg sensations and periodic leg movements while awake (PLMW) were recorded. Sensations, PLMW, sensations preceding or after PLMW, sensations occurring without following PLMW, and PL...