Behavioral, morphological and neurochemical analysis in a autism animal model

• Grant number: 16/06971-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2016
• End date: August 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Speech Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Luciana Pinato
• Grantee: Maisa Oliveira Silva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia e Ciências (FFC). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Marília. Marília , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS), when administered to a pregnant female during the gestation period, increase proinflammatory cytokines, mimicking prenatal inflammation frame. Thus, the offspring of rats exposed to LPS presents problems in neurodevelopment which result in behavioral and cognitive problems. Among the various pathologies involving disturbances in neurodevelopment is the autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Still without a defined cause in humans, it is known that in addition to behavioral disorders and communication / social interaction, make up the framework attentional problems, learning and memory depending on the degree of involvement. Research on the effects of prenatal inflammatory condition on behavior and neurochemistry of brain specific areas such as the hippocampus, is an important tool to support future studies to develop pharmacological or behavioral therapies to improve memory and learning frameworks. Knowing that the injection of LPS in a specific stage of neurodevelopment results in offspring that shows autistic behaviors, the aim of this study is to investigate the spatial memory and hippocampal neurochemistry of the offspring of rats exposed to LPS and control rats. To characterize the neurochemical the distribution pattern and the number of NeuN immunoreactive neurons, GFAP, and Ca2 + binding proteins will be analyzed in the hippocampus. Our expectation is to describe, behavioral and neurochemical characteristics that contribute to the understanding of the difficulties of learning disorders that coincide with neurodevelopmental problems. (AU)