Effects of gonadal hormones absence since weaning on social behavior in adult female mice

LUCÍA MARÍA DI GUARDIA CASELLA; ARACELI SEIFFE; AMAICHA MARA DEPINO

San Luis

Congreso; SAN2023; 2023

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by decreased sociability andincreased repetitive behaviors, with a significant sex bias: over 80% of ASD diagnoses arein males. This implicates sex-related factors in ASD development. Previous experimentsfrom our group demonstrated that male mice prenatally exposed to VPA at GD12.5exhibit reduced sociability at weaning and in adulthood. In contrast, VPA-exposedfemales display reduced juvenile play at postnatal day (PD) 21, but sociability remainsunaffected in adulthood.To explore non-reproductive ASD-related behaviors influenced by gonadalhormones, we investigated adult female CF1 mice ovariectomized (OVX) or subjected tosham (SHAM) surgery at PD21. We then ran a battery of behavioral tests in adulthood, toevaluate ASD-relevant behaviors. Our analysis revealed comparable sociability levelsbetween SHAM and OVX adult females. However, when we evaluated the habituation toa social stimulus, OVX mice exhibited increased sniffing of the stimulus in initialpresentations, suggesting altered social novelty assessment. Our ongoing research aimsto assess adult sociability in VPA-exposed females following ovariectomy at PD21, toevaluate the role of gonadal hormones on female resilience to VPA effects on sociability.