Developmental disruption of amygdala transcriptome and socioemotional behavior in rats exposed to valproic acid prenatally.
Catherine E Barrett, Thomas M Hennessey, Katelyn M Gordon and 4 others
PMID 28775827WHAT IT FOUND
Prenatal valproic acid exposure in rats changed amygdala gene and protein pathways and altered vocalizations, maternal odor responses, fear, anxiety, and social behavior, mainly in males.
This is animal model data, not human therapy evidence.
Key findings
01Prenatal VPA altered rat pup vocalizations: female VPA pups had shorter mean call length at P7, and VPA pups called less at P11 with higher-frequency calls.
02VPA-exposed male rats approached maternal bedding less often and showed enhanced startle to maternal odor, while fear-potentiated startle was increased in both sexes.
03In male rat amygdala, PKA signaling and Rho family GTPase signaling were altered between saline and VPA animals at P10 and P21 in both transcriptomic and proteomic samples.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
The study was done in rats, not in children with autism spectrum disorder. The genomic differences between groups did not survive correction for testing many genes at once. Genomic analyses were run only in males, so female amygdala changes were not characterized. P10 amygdala samples may have included regions outside the basolateral amygdala. Female startle responses to maternal odor were not measured. The paper does not test any therapy or human outcome.
Declared interests
No author conflict declaration is included in the supplied text. The article is listed as supported by NIH extramural research funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these rat results as evidence that valproic acid causes autism in children or that any therapy should change. The study tested rats, not people, and the genomic treatment effects did not survive multiple comparison correction.