Prenatal and early-life exposure to high-level diesel exhaust particles leads to increased locomotor activity and repetitive behaviors in mice.
Breathing diesel soot before and right after birth makes male mice groom and run in repetitive loops, giving us a clean model of environmental ASD risk.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Scientists exposed pregnant mice to high levels of diesel exhaust particles. After birth, the babies breathed the same dirty air until weaning.
Male pups grew up in clean cages. At 10 weeks old, staff filmed each mouse for 20 minutes. They counted grooming, rearing, and cage crossings.
What they found
Diesel-exposed males groomed twice as long as controls. They also reared and ran more, showing clear repetitive behavior spikes.
Social sniff tests looked normal. The pollution did not hurt sociability—only ritual-like movements rose.
How this fits with other research
Cheslack-Postava et al. (2021) saw no autism rise in Finnish kids whose mothers smoked. The studies seem opposite, but Keely tracked human tobacco smoke while Keerthi used mouse diesel—different chemicals, different species.
Early et al. (2012) found solvent and asphalt fumes linked to human ASD. Both papers point to airborne chemicals as risks, strengthening the environmental theme.
van Timmeren et al. (2016) showed ASD adults keep pressing buttons for stale food, hinting at stuck routines. Keerthi gives an early-life cause for those same routines in mice.
Why it matters
You now have a lab model that mirrors the repetitive profile you see in clinic, without social deficits. Use it when teaching staff why early air quality matters. Ask families about highways, bus depots, or construction near the home during pregnancy. Simple intake questions cost nothing and may guide advocacy for cleaner routes to school or indoor filters.
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Add one line to your intake form: 'Any major traffic, construction, or exhaust exposure during pregnancy or infancy?'
02At a glance
03Original abstract
Abundant evidence indicates that both genetic and environmental factors contribute to the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). However, limited knowledge is available concerning these contributing factors. An epidemiology study reported a link between increased incidence of autism and living closely to major highways, suggesting a possible role for pollutants from highway traffic. We investigated whether maternal exposure to diesel exhaust particles (DEP) negatively affects fetal development leading to autism-like phenotype in mice. Female mice and their offspring were exposed to DEP during pregnancy and nursing. Adult male offspring were then tested for behaviors reflecting the typical symptoms of ASD patients. Compared to control mice, DEP-exposed offspring exhibited higher locomotor activity, elevated levels of self-grooming in the presence of an unfamiliar mouse, and increased rearing behaviors, which may be relevant to the restricted and repetitive behaviors seen in ASD patients. However, the DEP-exposed mice did not exhibit deficits in social interactions or social communication which are the key features of ASD. These results suggest that early life exposure to DEP could have an impact on mouse development leading to observable changes in animal behaviors. Further studies are needed to reveal other environmental insults and genetic factors that would lead to animal models expressing key phenotypes of the autism spectrum disorders.
Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research, 2013 · doi:10.1002/aur.1287