Prenatal lipopolysaccharide induces hypothalamic dopaminergic hypoactivity and autistic-like behaviors: Repetitive self-grooming and stereotypies

Behavioural Brain Research
Thiago B Kirsten, Maria M Bernardi

Abstract

Previous investigations by our group have shown that prenatal exposure to lipopolysaccharide (LPS), which mimics infection by gram-negative bacteria, induces social, cognitive, and communication deficits. For a complete screening of autistic-like behaviors, the objective of this study was to evaluate if our rat model also induces restricted and repetitive stereotyped behaviors. Thus, we studied the self-grooming microstructure. We also studied the neurochemistry of hypothalamus and frontal cortex, which are brain areas related to autism to better understand central mechanisms involved in our model. Prenatal LPS exposure on gestational day 9.5 increased the head washing episodes (frequency and time), as well as the total self-grooming. However, body grooming, paw/leg licking, tail/genital grooming, and circling behavior/tail chasing did not vary significantly among the groups. Moreover, prenatal LPS induced dopaminergic hypoactivity (HVA metabolite and turnover) in the hypothalamus. Therefore, our rat model induced restricted and repetitive stereotyped behaviors and the other main symptoms of autism experimentally studied in rodent models and also found in patients. The hypothalamic dopaminergic impairments seem to be associated...Continue Reading

References

Sep 14, 2016·Journal of Anatomy·Alex P A Donovan, M Albert Basson

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Citations

Dec 12, 2017·Developmental Dynamics : an Official Publication of the American Association of Anatomists·Cynthia M SolekEdward S Ruthazer
Feb 6, 2018·Environmental Science and Pollution Research International·Nicolas PetitdantAnne-Sophie Villégier
Nov 6, 2018·Cerebral Cortex·Amandine FernandezYehezkel Ben-Ari
Jun 12, 2020·International Journal of Molecular Sciences·Magdalena CieślikAgata Adamczyk
Nov 30, 2018·Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience·Heather K HughesPaul Ashwood
Aug 14, 2020·Journal of Clinical Medicine·Antonio Ji-Xu, Angela Vincent
Dec 29, 2020·Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews·Emilia CarboneViviana Trezza
May 1, 2021·International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health·Santiago MoraMargarita Moreno

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