Szabó Jakub, Filo Johan, Démuthová Rebeka, Renczés Emese, Borbélyová Veronika, Ostatníková Daniela, Celec Peter
Institute of Molecular Biomedicine, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
Institute of Medical Physics and Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia.
J Neurodev Disord. 2025 Aug 2;17(1):45. doi: 10.1186/s11689-025-09635-3.
BACKGROUND: High heritability (80-90%) of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and sex-biased incidence (3-4 times more boys than girls) suggest the roles of genetic predisposition and sex in the etiopathogenesis of the disorder. As ASD is commonly diagnosed in early childhood, most of the research is focused on children, yet animal research predominantly uses adult-aged animals. The effect of aging on the core and secondary ASD symptomatology is understudied, both in patients and animal models of ASD. METHODS: To investigate the effect of aging on sociability, repetitive behavior, exploration, locomotor activity, anxiety-like behavior, and object-avoidance behavior, behavioral phenotyping was conducted in Shank3B (n = 67) and C57BL/6J wild-type (WT, n = 68) mice of both sexes (female n = 70, male n = 65) in adolescence (1-2 months of age, n = 42), adulthood (3-6 months of age, n = 40), and old age (12-18 months of age, n = 53). RESULTS: Social deficits were observed only in old Shank3B males. Anxiety-like behavior peaked in adulthood with Shank3B mice roughly 20% more anxious than controls. Repetitive grooming and object-induced avoidance behavior were twice more prevalent in Shank3B mice consistently across the lifespan. Hypoactivity (20% less distance moved) and reduced exploration (30% less rearing behavior) were recorded in Shank3B mice and were more prevalent in female animals (30% less rearing behavior). Data were analyzed using the Three-way ANOVA (genotype, sex, age), followed by a posthoc Bonferroni correction to compare respective subgroups. CONCLUSIONS: Present study shows that aging affects ASD-like phenotype in the Shank3B-mutant mouse model, even though the effect size seems to be small. The mechanisms underlying these partially sex-specific effects should be the subject of further research with potential translational implications.
背景:自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)具有较高的遗传度(80 - 90%)且发病率存在性别差异(男孩发病率比女孩高3 - 4倍),这表明遗传易感性和性别在该疾病的病因学中发挥作用。由于ASD通常在幼儿期被诊断出来,大多数研究都集中在儿童身上,然而动物研究主要使用成年动物。在ASD患者和动物模型中,衰老对ASD核心及次要症状的影响尚未得到充分研究。 方法:为了研究衰老对社交能力、重复行为、探索行为、运动活动、焦虑样行为和物体回避行为的影响,对67只Shank3B小鼠和68只C57BL / 6J野生型(WT)小鼠(雌性70只,雄性65只)进行了行为表型分析,这些小鼠处于青春期(1 - 2月龄,42只)、成年期(3 - 6月龄,40只)和老年期(12 - 18月龄,53只)。 结果:仅在老年Shank3B雄性小鼠中观察到社交缺陷。焦虑样行为在成年期达到峰值,Shank3B小鼠比对照组焦虑程度高出约20%。在整个生命周期中,Shank3B小鼠的重复梳理和物体诱导回避行为的发生率始终是对照组的两倍。Shank3B小鼠出现活动减少(移动距离减少20%)和探索行为减少(竖毛行为减少30%),且在雌性动物中更为普遍(竖毛行为减少30%)。数据采用三因素方差分析(基因型、性别、年龄)进行分析,随后进行事后Bonferroni校正以比较各个亚组。 结论:本研究表明,衰老会影响Shank3B突变小鼠模型中的ASD样表型,尽管效应大小似乎较小。这些部分性别特异性效应的潜在机制应作为进一步研究的主题,可能具有转化意义。
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