Corpus callosum cellular and structural alterations in the VPA rat model of autism.

UCCELLI NA; TRAETTA ME; CODAGNONE MG; PASQUINI JM; ROSATO SIRI MV; REINES A

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Congreso 2016 de la SAIC; 2016

Autism Spectrum isorders AS are a group of neurodevelopmental disabilities ith unnon biological basis. A longdistance hypoconnectivity and shortdistance hyperconnectivity hypothesis has emerged for these disorders. Structural and functional alterations in the corpus callosum (CC),the main structure that contains axonal tracts connecting brain hemispheres, have been reported in AS patients. Changes in adhesion molecule expression, neuroinflamation and hite matter alterations have been described in different brain areas both in AS patients and animal models. The aim of this or as to elucidate cellular and molecular alterations in CC subregions from rats prenatally exposed to valproic acid A. For this purpose, at postnatal day , e studied cellular organization by A staining in CC rostral body and posterior midbody. Also, e evaluated the expression of the neural cell adhesion molecule CA and its polysialilated form SACA and studied glial cells by tomato lectin microglia, glial fibrillary acidic protein FA, atrocytes, CC oligodendrocytes and myelin basic protein by immunohistochemistry. n A rats, e found decreased CA expression levels in rostral CC but not in the posterior region, accompanied by a robust diminution in SACA levels in both CC subregions. e also observed cellular disorganization in the CC from A animals but no changes ere found in microglia or astroglia. CC and immunoreactivity decreased in both CC subregions of A rats. n summary, our results indicate longdistance connectivity defects as ell as a spread reduction in mature oligodendrocytes and myelin content in the absence of microgliosis and astrogliosis in both CC sub-regions studied in VPA rats.