Disorders of the Nervous System
Author: Florencia Alejandra Kloster | email: florkloster96@gmail.com
Florencia Kloster 1°, Amaicha Mara Depino 1°, Verónica Murta 1°
1° Laboratory of Neurobiology of Autism and Social Behaviors (IFIBYNE, UBA-CONICET)
The cerebellum is known for orchestrating motor functions, however recent evidence points to a role in higher cognitive functions, including language and affect. In autism, a disorder characterized by social impairment, chronic neuroinflammation in the cerebellum was reported. Our lab showed that injection of the proinflammatory agent lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in the cerebellum (lobule VII) decreased the sociability of adult mice. The aim of this project was to analyze molecular pathways associated to this model. To that end, mice were pretreated with anti-inflammatory drugs: ibuprofen or dexamethasone. Our goal was to assess the effect of the treatments on sociability, on lobule VII structure and on local neuroinflammation. We reconfirmed that LPS reduced sociability after 24 hours. Ibuprofen and dexamethasone completely prevented LPS effect on sociability. We measured morphometric parameters in histological sections and found no effects between any of the experimental groups, indicating these treatments had no effect on lobule structure after 24 hours. In the future we will quantify the expression of IL-1? mRNA using Real-Time PCR to describe the inflammatory process in the cerebellum. We expect an increase in IL-1? mRNA expression as a consequence of LPS treatment, that could be prevented by both anti-inflammatory drugs. To conclude, we think our results will contribute to uncover the mechanisms underlying the reduction in sociability in our neuroinflammation model.