Study identifies possible connection to autism development
triggered by IL-17a, the control group did not.
When they supressed IL-17a artificially at the pups, both groups displayed neurotypical behavior, but later on, when the human interference stopped and the mice grew naturally, those of the first group showed symptoms typical of autism, such as repetitive behavior.
John R Lukens research
Afterwords, researchers used the feces of the mice in the first group to perform a fecal transplant on the mice in the second group to effectively transfer the pro-inflammatory gut bacteria. As suspected, the mice from the second group also developed autism-like behavior.
While researchers have only conducted the study on mice, it does provide a foundation for further research that could determine the extent the mother’s gut health contributes to the development of neurodevelopmental disorders.
“In terms of translating our work to humans, I think the next big step would be to identify features of the microbiome
