Juvenile peripheral LPS exposure overrides female resilience to prenatal VPA effects on adult sociability in mice.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) exhibits a gender bias, with boys more frequently affected than girls. Similarly, in mouse models induced by prenatal exposure to valproic acid (VPA), males typically display reduced sociability, while females are less affected. Although both males and females exhibit VPA effects on neuroinflammatory parameters, these effects are sex-specific.

Juvenile handling rescues autism-related effects of prenatal exposure to valproic acid.

Environmental factors acting on young animals affect neurodevelopmental trajectories and impact adult brain function and behavior. Psychiatric disorders may be caused or worsen by environmental factors, but early interventions can improve performance. Understanding the possible mechanisms acting upon the developing brain could help identify etiological factors of psychiatric disorders and enable advancement of effective therapies.

Early estradiol exposure masculinizes disease-relevant behaviors in female mice.

Most psychiatric disorders show a sex bias in incidence, symptomatology, and/or response to treatment. Males are more susceptible to neurodevelopmental disorders including autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit activity disorder, while women are more prone to major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders after puberty. A striking difference between males and females in humans and other mammals is that males undergo a process of brain masculinization due to the early exposure to gonadal hormones.

Sex-specific effects of prenatal valproic acid exposure on sociability and neuroinflammation: Relevance for susceptibility and resilience in autism.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of neurodevelopmental disorders with an incidence four times higher in boys than in girls. By analyzing the effect of sex in a mouse model of ASD, we were able to identify immune alterations that could underlie this sex bias. Pregnant mice were injected subcutaneously with 600 mg/kg of valproic acid (VPA) or saline at gestational day 12.

Hypomyelination and Oligodendroglial Alterations in a Mouse Model of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) are neuropsychiatric diseases characterized by impaired social interaction, communication deficits, and repetitive and stereotyped behaviors. ASD etiology is unknown, and both genetic and environmental causes have been proposed. Different brain structures are believed to play a role in ASD-related behaviors, including medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), hippocampus, piriform cortex (Pir), basolateral amygdala (BLA) and Cerebellum.