Peers can rescue autism-related behaviors and glucose brain metabolism after prenatal exposure to valproic acid

CAMPOLONGO M; KAZLAUSKAS N; FALASCO G; URRUTIA L; DEPINO AM

Congreso; 2nd FALAN Congress; 2016

FALAN

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by poor social interaction. Symptoms appear in earlylife and persist in adulthood. At present, there are no effective treatments and the mechanisms by which theyact are unknown. Our aim is to analyze the effects of early social stimulation on autism-related behavior and itsconsequences in molecular and cellular pathways that could be altered in autism.It was previously shown that mice exposed to valproic acid (VPA) at gestational day 12.5 show reduced socialinteraction in adulthood. Here, we found that this effect is not observed when VPA animals live with control animals between postnatal day (P)21 to P60, then receiving normal social stimulation during this period. This treatment can then rescue at least some of the behavioral alterations observed in our model.We aimed then to study the critical period when behavioral alterations appear, which are the brain regions involved in the social interaction among peers, and which effect could have social stimulation on both. We used PET imaging for an unbiased analysis of the whole brain and we found that VPA animals present high levels ofmetabolism in basal conditions, in the piriform cortex and anterior olfactory nucleus, both involved in social behavior in mice. This effect is reversed after social stimulation. As a potential mechanism for changes in neuronal function, we are using transgenic Thy1-GFP mice exposed to VPA to study spine density in the hippocampus.