| Literature DB >> 17157402 |
Naohisa Tsujino1, Yasushi Nakatani, Yoshinari Seki, Akane Nakasato, Michiko Nakamura, Michiya Sugawara, Hideho Arita.
Abstract
Several clinical reports have indicated that autistic patients often show disturbance of the circadian rhythm, which may be related to dysfunction of the serotonergic system in the brain. Using rats exposed prenatally to valproic acid (VPA) as an animal model of autism, we examined locomotor activity and feeding under a reversed 12-h light/dark cycle, and found disturbance of the circadian rhythm characterized by frequent arousal during the light/sleep phase. In addition, measurement of brain serotonin (5-HT) level using in vivo microdialysis showed that the brain 5-HT level in VPA-exposed rats was significantly higher than that in control rats. These results suggest that a higher brain 5-HT level might be responsible for the irregular sleep/awake rhythm in autism.Entities:
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Year: 2006 PMID: 17157402 DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2006.10.018
Source DB: PubMed Journal: Neurosci Res ISSN: 0168-0102 Impact factor: 3.304