White Matter Glial Pathology in Autism
Abstract
Methods used to directly study the autism brain include brain imaging in living patients and pathology studies using postmortem brain tissues from deceased autism spectrum disorder (ASD) donors. These methods typically focus on brain regions as a whole with little regard to the underlying cellular complexity. While informative, these approaches do not provide information about the specific brain cells affected and also have not been successful in revealing the underlying cause of autism. This project uses innovative methods and a novel approach to investigate the pathology of the brain autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This research employed laser capture microdissection to isolate specific cell populations from carefully defined and specific brain regions from ASD and typically developing control brains. These cells were used to interrogate gene expression abnormalities that may underlie biological mechanisms that contribute behavioral abnormalities of ASD. By examining the ASD brain at the level of its most basic component, the cell, we seek to reveal a potentially unifying cellular pathology of the ASD brain that could be used for the development of therapeutic alternatives for ASD patients.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2014
- Accession Number
- ADA613167
Entities
People
- Gregory A. Ordway
- Jessica D. Crawford
- Michelle J Chandley
Organizations
- East Tennessee State University