The gut microbiota has been a hot topic in recent years, and for good reason. Our gut health can impact everything from our mental well-being to our susceptibility to certain diseases. But did you know that there may be a direct link between mom’s gut health and the development of autism?
A groundbreaking study published in The Journal of Immunology has discovered a connection between the gut microbiota and neurodevelopmental disorders like autism. And get this – it’s not just about what’s going on in our own gut, but rather what we inherit from our mothers.
According to John Lukens, lead researcher and PhD student from the University of Virginia School of Medicine, “The microbiome can shape the developing brain in multiple ways… It’s really important to the calibration of how the offspring’s immune system is going to respond to an infection or injury or stress.”
The study found that a specific molecule called interleukin-17a (IL-17a) plays a crucial role in this connection. IL-17a has been linked to diseases like psoriasis and multiple sclerosis, but its impact on autism development was previously unknown.
To test their theory, the researchers suppressed IL-17a in lab mice and observed the effects on the pups’ behavior. The results were striking: when the IL-17a molecule was artificially suppressed at birth, the pups exhibited typical neurobehavioral patterns. But as they grew and developed without further intervention, the pups born to moms with gut microbiota that predisposed them to an inflammatory response triggered by IL-17a began to exhibit neurological disorders resembling autism.
To confirm these findings, the researchers performed a fecal transplant on the control group’s mice, altering their microflora to match the first group. And sure enough, the second group’s pups developed similar neurological disorders.
While this study is still in its early stages and may not directly apply to human pregnancies, it presents an exciting line of inquiry for autism research and provides compelling evidence that mom’s gut health contributes to the development of neurodevelopmental disorders.
The next step, according to Lukens, is to determine what aspect of mom’s microbiome is linked to the development of autism and see if they can find similar correlations in people. There are many more molecules to explore, and IL-17a might just be a single component in a much bigger picture.
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