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July 9, 2013 — Researchers with the UC Davis MIND Institute have found that prenatal exposure to specific combinations of antibodies found only in mothers of children with autism leads to changes in the brain that adversely affect behavior and development.
The researchers said that the highly specific immunoglobulin-G (IgG) autoantibodies cross the placenta during pregnancy to impact fetal brain development, resulting in a form of autism that the researchers now are calling maternal antibody-related (MAR) autism. The researchers said that MAR autism cases could represent as much as 23 percent of all autism cases.
The research is published online today in Translational Psychiatry, a Nature journal.
During gestation, maternal IgG antibodies normally cross the placenta and protect the fetus, conferring the mother's immunities to the developing child. However, in addition to protective antibodies, autoantibodies that react to fetal proteins can also cross the placenta, essentially attacking fetal tissue.
The current study is an extension of an earlier study conducted in 2008. It explores the effects of the autism-specific IgG antibodies in a non-human primate model. Non-human primates live in complex social groups and use many forms of social communication. In addition, portions of the human brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, are poorly developed in other animal models, such as rodents, but are highly developed in the rhesus monkey.
Read the rest of the article here.
Journal Reference:
M D Bauman, A-M Iosif, P Ashwood, D Braunschweig, A Lee, C M Schumann, J Van de Water, D G Amaral. Maternal antibodies from mothers of children with autism alter brain growth and social behavior development in the rhesus monkey. Translational Psychiatry, 2013; 3 (7): e278 DOI: 10.1038/tp.2013.47
The researchers said that the highly specific immunoglobulin-G (IgG) autoantibodies cross the placenta during pregnancy to impact fetal brain development, resulting in a form of autism that the researchers now are calling maternal antibody-related (MAR) autism. The researchers said that MAR autism cases could represent as much as 23 percent of all autism cases.
The research is published online today in Translational Psychiatry, a Nature journal.
During gestation, maternal IgG antibodies normally cross the placenta and protect the fetus, conferring the mother's immunities to the developing child. However, in addition to protective antibodies, autoantibodies that react to fetal proteins can also cross the placenta, essentially attacking fetal tissue.
The current study is an extension of an earlier study conducted in 2008. It explores the effects of the autism-specific IgG antibodies in a non-human primate model. Non-human primates live in complex social groups and use many forms of social communication. In addition, portions of the human brain, such as the prefrontal cortex, are poorly developed in other animal models, such as rodents, but are highly developed in the rhesus monkey.
Read the rest of the article here.
Journal Reference:
M D Bauman, A-M Iosif, P Ashwood, D Braunschweig, A Lee, C M Schumann, J Van de Water, D G Amaral. Maternal antibodies from mothers of children with autism alter brain growth and social behavior development in the rhesus monkey. Translational Psychiatry, 2013; 3 (7): e278 DOI: 10.1038/tp.2013.47