Animal models, of ASD

Animal models can complement clinical studies of PTSD in that prospective studies can more readily be conducted, exposure and physiologic stress conditions can be more tightly controlled, and biochemical and neuroanatomical measures can be evaluated. A variety of animal models, including conditioned defeat, fear conditioning, and predator stress models have been developed to mimic ASD and features of PTSD. Animal measures that are considered useful and parallel symptoms of PTSD include fear, avoidant and hypervigilant responses. We will briefly discuss a few representative animal models of ASD and PTSD. 

Recent studies in an animal model of ASD have highlighted the potential of probiotics or commensal gut bacteria to alleviate not only gastrointrestinal symptoms associated with ASD, but also overt ASD pathological traits. Hsiao et al. used a mouse model of inflammation, the maternal immune activation (MIA) model which leads to pups which exhibit the core communicative, social and stereot)q3ed impairments of ASD. The offspring of MIA dams also exhibit localized deficiency in GABAergic cerebellar Purkinje cells, a pathological feature of... 

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