Early life oxytocin treatment improves thermo-sensory reactivity and maternal behavior in neonates lacking the autism-associated gene Magel2.

ABSTRACT: Atypical responses to sensory stimuli are considered as a core aspect and early life marker of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Although recent findings performed in mouse ASD genetic models report sensory deficits, these were explored exclusively during juvenile or adult period. Whether sensory dysfunctions might be present at the early life stage and rescued by therapeutic strategy are fairly uninvestigated. Here we found that under cool environment neonatal mice lacking the autism-associated gene Magel2 present pup calls hypo-reactivity and are retrieved with delay by their wild-type dam. This neonatal atypical sensory reactivity to cool stimuli was not associated with autonomic thermoregulatory alteration but with a deficit of the oxytocinergic system. Indeed, we show in control neonat

SUBMITTER: Da Prato LC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9485246 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature