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      Maternal infection and immune involvement in autism.

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      Trends in molecular medicine
      Elsevier BV

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          Abstract

          Recent studies have highlighted a connection between infection during pregnancy and the increased risk of autism in the offspring. Parallel studies of cerebral spinal fluid, blood and postmortem brains reveal an ongoing, hyper-responsive inflammatory-like state in many young as well as adult autism subjects. There are also indications of gastrointestinal problems in at least a subset of autistic children. Work on the maternal infection risk factor using animal models indicates that aspects of brain and peripheral immune dysregulation can begin during fetal development and continue through adulthood. The offspring of infected or immune-activated dams also display cardinal behavioral features of autism, as well as neuropathology consistent with that seen in human autism. These rodent models are proving useful for the study of pathogenesis and gene-environment interactions as well as for the exploration of potential therapeutic strategies.

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          Author and article information

          Journal
          Trends Mol Med
          Trends in molecular medicine
          Elsevier BV
          1471-499X
          1471-4914
          Jul 2011
          : 17
          : 7
          Affiliations
          [1 ] Biology Division, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA. php@caltech.edu
          Article
          S1471-4914(11)00049-9 NIHMS281022
          10.1016/j.molmed.2011.03.001
          3135697
          21482187
          9846dcb8-37cd-4f70-aa00-b01bec313c04
          Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
          History

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