Figure 3. A summary of human and animal experimental results showing the principal adverse mechanisms contributing to grey matter and white matter pathology in FGR .

Chronic fetal hypoxia, hypoglycaemia, oxidative stress and inflammation are the likely causes of adverse neurodevelopment. Gross changes in brain volume are observed in both grey and white matter of the FGR brain, contributed by cell loss and sparsity of neuropil layers with altered axons, dendrites, synapses and myelination.