Molecular causes of sex-specific deficits in rodent models of neurodevelopmental disorders.

ABSTRACT: Neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) such as intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder consistently show a male bias in prevalence, but it remains unclear why males and females are affected with different frequency. While many behavioral studies of transgenic NDD models have focused only on males, the requirement by the National Institutes of Health to consider sex as a biological variable has promoted the comparison of male and female performance in wild-type and mutant animals. Here, we review examples of rodent models of NDDs in which sex-specific deficits were identified in molecular, physiological, and/or behavioral responses, showing sex differences in susceptibility to disruption of genes mutated in NDDs. Haploinsufficiency in genes involved in mechanisms such as synaptic

SUBMITTER: Mossa A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7754327 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature