title: Sex Differences in Autism-Like Behavioral Phenotypes and Postsynaptic Receptors Expression in the Prefrontal Cortex of TERT Transgenic Mice.
abstract: Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) remains unexplained and untreated despite the high attention of research in recent years. Aside from its various characteristics is the baffling male preponderance over the female population. Using a validated animal model of ASD which is the telomerase reverse transcriptase overexpressing mice (TERT-tg), we conducted ASD-related behavioral assessments and protein expression experiments to mark the difference between male and females of this animal model. After statistically analyzing the results, we found significant effects of TERT overexpression in sociability, social novelty preference, anxiety, nest building, and electroseizure threshold in the males but not their female littermates. Along these differences are the male-specific increased expressions of postsynaptic proteins which are the NMDA and AMPA receptors in the prefrontal cortex. The vGluT1 presynaptic proteins, but not GAD, were upregulated in both sexes of TERT-tg mice, although it is more significantly pronounced in the male group. Here, we confirmed that the behavioral effect of TERT overexpression in mice was male-specific, suggesting that the aberration of this gene and its downstream pathways preferentially affect the functional development of the male brain, consistent with the male preponderance in ASD.
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ki Chan
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyu Suk
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Edson Luck
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Gonzales
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Schley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Valencia
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Pyeong Hwa
authors.initials: PH
authors.lastname: Eun
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chang Soon
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Darine Froy
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Mabunga
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Ji-Woon
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: College of Human Ecology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, United States of America.
authors.forename: Judy Kyoungju
authors.initials: JK
authors.lastname: Noh
authors.affiliation: Uimyung Research Institute for Neuroscience, School of Pharmacy, Sahmyook University, Seoul 01795, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hee Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Life and Nanopharmaceutical Science, College of Pharmacy, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Se Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Jeon
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Seol-Heui
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuropsychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul 02447, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Geon Ho
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Bahn
authors.affiliation: Center for Neuroscience Research, SMART Institute of Advanced Biomedical Sciences, Konkuk University, Seoul 05029, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Chan Young
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Shin
keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Excitatory/Inhibitory imbalance; Sex difference; Synapse; TERT transgenic mice