Mice lacking one copy of the autism-linked 16p11.2 chromosomal region are thin, deaf and show repetitive behaviors. They also have altered proportions of neurons in their brains, particularly those that express the chemical messenger dopamine. The unpublished results were presented Sunday at the 2012 Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in New Orleans.
Mice lacking EN2, an autism-linked gene, have a range of behavioral problems, including social deficits, problems with learning and memory, and motor abnormalities, according to a study published 19 July in PLoS One.
SAGE Labs has announced a new partnership with the autism science and advocacy organization Autism Speaks to fund the creation of three new rat models of autism.
Concerned by researchers’ lack of access to a valuable mouse model of autism, a nonprofit advocacy group is dedicating a chunk of its limited resources to the creation of a freely available version.
Losing one or both copies of TSC1, one of the two genes responsible for tuberous sclerosis complex, in specific cells of the cerebellum can trigger several autism-like behaviors in mice, according to research published 1 July in Nature.
Offspring born to pregnant rats with an activated immune system emit more distress calls when they receive electrical shocks than do controls, according to a study published 9 June in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.
Two new strains of mice carrying different mutations in the SHANK2 gene show similar autism-like behaviors but opposing effects on brain signaling, according to two independent studies published 14 June in Nature.
Mice that are unable to produce a carbohydrate molecule that regulates cell growth show behaviors that resemble the core deficits of autism, according to a study published 27 March in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Researchers typically use only one ‘cohort,’ a group of about three dozen mice, for a given set of experiments. When others repeat the experiments with a different set of animals, sometimes the results hold up, and sometimes they don’t.
Researchers have identified deletions in SHANK1 — the third member of a gene family that is closely linked to autism — in five men with the disorder, they reported 4 May in the American Journal of Human Genetics. This is the first study linking SHANK1 mutations to people with autism.