Two studies published 9 July bolster the hypothesis that immune molecules in a pregnant woman’s bloodstream may sometimes cause autism in her child.

Abnormal cells in the placenta, usually discarded at birth, may be early indicators of autism, suggests a study published 22 April in Biological Psychiatry.

Infection during pregnancy may alter the chemical tags that are added to histones, proteins that form a spool for DNA, according to a study published 9 February in Brain, Behavior and Immunity. Drugs that target these tags may treat neuropsychiatric disorders, the researchers say.

Two large studies confirm that the use of antidepressants or the epilepsy drug valproate by pregnant women raises the risk of autism in their children.

Exposure to immune factors during gestation may account for the social deficits seen in a mouse model of autism, according to a study published 15 May in the Journal of Neuroimmunology. Fetuses of a normal mouse strain develop the same social deficits when exposed to the immune factors.

Researchers have identified six fetal brain proteins that bind to maternal antibodies, which are thought to trigger changes to the fetal brain and raise the risk of autism. They presented their findings today at the International Meeting for Autism Research in San Sebastián, Spain.

Maternal antibodies that raise the risk of autism when a fetus is exposed to them in utero may lead to elevated head size in the child, according to a study published 8 February in Brain, Behavior and Immunity.

Women who report being abused as children are more likely to have a child with autism, according to a new report from the Nurses’ Health Study, published 20 March in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Folic acid supplements taken early in pregnancy reduce the risk of autism, according to a large Norwegian study published 13 February in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

Researchers can use functional magnetic resonance imaging to map fetal brain connectivity during the second and third trimesters of pregnancy, according to a study published 20 February in Science Translational Medicine.