International journal of developmental neuroscience : the official journal of the International Society for Developmental Neuroscience
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Autism is a severe neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by impairments in social interaction, deficits in verbal and non-verbal communication, and repetitive behavior and restricted interests. The normal brain development during fetal brain development and the first year of life is critical to the behaviors and cognitions in adulthood. ⋯ It has been demonstrated a possible association between neural cell death and autism. Here, the abnormal apoptosis found in autism from postmortem and animal studies was reviewed and the possible mechanism was discussed.
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Int. J. Dev. Neurosci. · Aug 2014
Prenatal caffeine intake differently affects synaptic proteins during fetal brain development.
Caffeine is the psychostimulant most consumed worldwide. However, little is known about its effects during fetal brain development. In this study, adult female Wistar rats received caffeine in drinking water (0.1, 0.3 and 1.0 g/L) during the active cycle in weekdays, two weeks before mating and throughout pregnancy. ⋯ Our data revealed that caffeine transitorily affect synaptic proteins during fetal brain development. The increased number of NeuN-stained nuclei by prenatal caffeine suggests a possible acceleration of the telencephalon maturation. Although some modifications in the synaptic proteins were transient, our data suggest that caffeine even in lower doses may alter the fetal brain development.