Department of Biological Sciences, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA.
Honors College, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, 79409, USA.
Sci Rep. 2021 Apr 16;11(1):8364. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-87678-x.
Neurodevelopmental disorders are conditions caused by the abnormal development of the central nervous system. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is currently the most common form of such disorders, affecting 1% of the population worldwide. Despite its prevalence, the mechanisms underlying ASD are not fully known. Recent studies have suggested that the maternal gut microbiome can have profound effects on neurodevelopment. Considering that the gut microbial composition is modulated by diet, we tested the hypothesis that ASD-like behavior could be linked to maternal diet and its associated gut dysbiosis. Therefore, we used a mouse model of parental high salt diet (HSD), and specifically evaluated social and exploratory behaviors in their control-fed offspring. Using 16S genome sequencing of fecal samples, we first show that (1) as expected, HSD changed the maternal gut microbiome, and (2) this altered gut microbiome was shared with the offspring. More importantly, behavioral analysis of the offspring showed hyperactivity, increased repetitive behaviors, and impaired sociability in adult male mice from HSD-fed parents. Taken together, our data suggests that parental HSD consumption is strongly associated with offspring ASD-like behavioral abnormalities via changes in gut microbiome.
神经发育障碍是由中枢神经系统异常发育引起的疾病。自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）是目前最常见的此类疾病，全球有 1%的人口受到影响。尽管 ASD 很常见，但其发病机制尚不完全清楚。最近的研究表明，母体肠道微生物组对神经发育有深远的影响。考虑到饮食可以调节肠道微生物的组成，我们假设 ASD 样行为可能与母体饮食及其相关的肠道菌群失调有关。因此，我们使用了一种父母高盐饮食（HSD）的小鼠模型，并特别评估了其对照喂养后代的社交和探索行为。我们使用粪便样本的 16S 基因组测序，首先表明：（1）正如预期的那样，HSD 改变了母体肠道微生物组；（2）这种改变的肠道微生物组与后代共享。更重要的是，对后代的行为分析表明，来自 HSD 喂养父母的成年雄性小鼠表现出过度活跃、重复行为增加和社交能力受损。总之，我们的数据表明，父母 HSD 的摄入通过改变肠道微生物组与后代的 ASD 样行为异常密切相关。
