Youngjun Park News Today

Using mouse models, researchers have identified a possible mechanism linking autism and intestinal inflammation.

When a mother experiences an infection during pregnancy and her immune system produces elevated levels of the molecule Interleukin-17a (IL-17a), that can not only alter brain development in her fetus, but also alter her microbiome such that after birth the newborn’s immune system can become primed for future inflammatory attacks.

Though many people with autism spectrum disorders also experience unusual gastrointestinal inflammation, scientists have not established how those