Chapter 8: Neuroinflammation in Animal Models of Autism

KAZLAUSKAS, N; ROBINSON-AGRAMONTE, MA; DEPINO AM

Translational Approaches to Autism Sprectrum Disorder

SPRINGER

Año: 2015; p. 137 - 153

In recent years, an increasing number of mouse and rat models of autism has been validated. These models have shown face validity, exhibiting alterations in behavior similar to those observed in autistic individuals. Moreover, some of these models were aimed to study different putative etiological factors of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), successfully showing construct validity. More recently, these animal models have been proved valuable to assess the contribution of neuroinflammation to ASD. On the one hand, eliciting inflammation in the central nervous system (CNS) during development was shown to result in behavioral alterations in mice similar to those observed in autistic individuals. On the other hand, neuroinflammation and malfunction of the immune system have been observed in different animal models of autism. The use of animal models has then contributed to stress the role and effects of neuroinflammation to the pathophysiology of autism.