Evaluation of Lead exposure’s link to autism-like behavior and Shank 3 gene expression in C57BL/6J mice
Sunao TAKABA, Nelly BANDA, Rio DOYA, Nyein Chan SOE, Kohei OGASAWARA, Anri HIRAI, Yoshinori IKENAKA, Mayumi ISHIZUKA, Shouta MM NAKAYAMA · 2026
Read Evaluation of Lead exposure’s link to autism-like behavior and Shank 3 gene expression in C57BL/6J mice by Sunao TAKABA, Nelly BANDA, Rio DOYA, Nyein Chan SOE, Kohei OGASAWARA, Anri HIRAI, Yoshinori IKENAKA, Mayumi ISHIZUKA, Shouta MM NAKAYAMA (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13500392.txt.
Description
Sunao Takaba and co-authors test in 2026 whether lead exposure before birth produces autism-like behaviour in mice and alters a gene linked to autism. Lead is a toxic metal tied to developmental disruption when exposure comes early, so pregnant mice received lead acetate in drinking water from the second week of pregnancy until weaning. Controls got purified water. Male offspring faced social choice and water maze tests at five and nine weeks, with gene expression measured in brain tissue.
Lead levels rose across blood, brain, bone, liver, and kidney tissue of exposed offspring, proving the metal crossed from mother to pup. Despite that body burden, neither social or learning behaviour nor expression of the Shank3 gene differed significantly between groups. The authors conclude this late-pregnancy exposure does not produce measurable autism-like traits in male mice of this strain, and call for dose and sex-focused follow-up.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Sunao TAKABA, Nelly BANDA, Rio DOYA, Nyein Chan SOE, Kohei OGASAWARA, Anri HIRAI, Yoshinori IKENAKA, Mayumi ISHIZUKA, Shouta MM NAKAYAMA |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 35843 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |