Widatalla Namareq, Khandoker Ahsan, Yoshida Chihiro, Nakanishi Kana, Fukase Miyabi, Suzuki Arisa, Saito Masatoshi, Kimura Yoshitaka, Kasahara Yoshiyuki
Next Generation Biological Information Technology, Tohoku University Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Sendai, Japan.
Healthcare Engineering Innovation Center, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Khalifa University, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Front Psychiatry. 2022 Nov 24;13:998695. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2022.998695. eCollection 2022.
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is considered a significant behavioral problem that is characterized by impairment in social interaction and communication. It is believed that some cases of ASD originate in the intrauterine maternal environment. Therefore, we hypothesized that there might be qualitative changes in the interaction between the mother and fetus in ASD during the prenatal period, hence, we investigated the similarity patterns between maternal and fetal heart rate (HR).
In this study, we first demonstrate the presence and formation of similarities between maternal and fetal RR interval (RRI) collected from typical developmental mice at different embryonic days (EDs), ED13.5, ED15.5, ED17.5, and ED18.5. The similarities were quantified by means of cross-correlation (CC) and magnitude-squared coherence (MSC) analyses. Correlation analysis between the CC coefficients and EDs and between MSC coefficients and EDs showed that the same coefficients increase with EDs, suggesting that similarities between maternal and fetal RRI are associated with typical fetal development. Next, because maternal and fetal similarities were indicative of development, a comparison analysis between the autism mouse model (injected with valproic acid (VPA)), and the control group (injected with saline) was performed for ED15.5 and ED18.5.
The results of the comparison showed that the CC and MSC coefficients of VPA fetuses were significantly lower than that of the control group. The lower coefficients in VPA-treated mice suggest that they could be one of the features of ASD symptoms. The findings of this study can assist in identifying potential ASD causes during the prenatal period.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）被认为是一种严重的行为问题，其特征是社交互动和沟通受损。据信，某些ASD病例起源于子宫内的母体环境。因此，我们假设在产前阶段，ASD患者的母婴互动可能存在质的变化，因此，我们研究了母体和胎儿心率（HR）之间的相似模式。
在本研究中，我们首先展示了从不同胚胎日（EDs）（ED13.5、ED15.5、ED17.5和ED18.5）的典型发育小鼠收集的母体和胎儿RR间期（RRI）之间相似性的存在和形成。通过互相关（CC）和幅度平方相干（MSC）分析对相似性进行量化。CC系数与EDs之间以及MSC系数与EDs之间的相关性分析表明，相同的系数随EDs增加，这表明母体和胎儿RRI之间的相似性与典型的胎儿发育有关。接下来，由于母体和胎儿的相似性表明发育情况，因此对自闭症小鼠模型（注射丙戊酸（VPA））和对照组（注射生理盐水）在ED15.5和ED18.5时进行了比较分析。
比较结果表明，VPA胎儿的CC和MSC系数显著低于对照组。VPA处理小鼠中较低的系数表明它们可能是ASD症状的特征之一。本研究结果有助于在产前阶段识别潜在的ASD病因。
