Role of the cerebellum in the modulation of sociability in the mouse

CECILIA ZAPPALA; NADIA KAZLAUSKAS; AMAICHA DEPINO

Congreso; XXX Annual Meeting of Argentinean Society for Neuroscience; 2015

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is group of complex disorders of brain development. Thesedisorders are characterized, in varying degrees, by difficulties in social interaction, verbaland nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors. The exact causes of these disordesremain unclear. Recently the cerebellum has emerged as one of the key brain regionsaffected in autism. To evaluate the role that the cerebellum plays in behaviors related toautism, we used a mouse model of ASD. Mice prenatally exposed to valproic acid (VPA) atgestational day 12.5 (GD 12.5) showed reduced social interaction in adulthood and signs ofneuroinflammation in the cerebellum. Moreover, the injection of an inflammogen in thelobule VII of the cerebellum of adult mice caused reduced social interaction and anincrease in activated microglia. These effects were absent when we injected the lobuleIV/V, suggesting that specific structures are involved in the modulation of sociability. Ourworking hypothesis is then that lobule VII is implicated in the regulation of sociability inmice. The aim of this work is to study the structure and the funtion of the lobule VII in thecerebellum in different stage of development in mice. To this aim, we quantified thedensity of Purkinje cells in the cerebellum of VPA and control animals, at differentpostnatal ages. We hope that this study will help us understand the role of the cerebellumin the regulation of the sociability in a mouse model of ASD.