Exposure to Fire-retardant Chemicals may Cause Autism in Female Offsprings

Exposure to fire-retardant chemicals is associated with the development of autism spectrum disorders or ASD in the female offspring.

Exposure to PBDEs (Polybrominated diphenyl ethers – fire-retardant chemicals) is found to pass on the neuroendocrine-disrupting chemicals to the developing offspring, thereby causing autism spectrum disorders, or ASD in the female fire-retardant chemicals as per a study at the University Of California – Riverside, published in the journal Archives of Toxicology.

Polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, are a group of fire-retardant chemicals that are ubiquitous and are considered global environmental pollutants. They are found on upholstery, carpets, curtains, electronics, and even infant products.

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‘Exposure to PBDEs (Polybrominated diphenyl ethers – fire-retardant chemicals) is found to pass on the neuroendocrine-disrupting chemicals to the developing offspring, thereby causing autism spectrum disorders or ASD in the female. ’

Flame retardants migrate out of products into dust that humans contact and can ingest. They are found, too, in the breast milk of women all over the world.

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The study team has found that when female mice exposed to PBDEs pass on these neuroendocrine-disrupting chemicals to their developing offspring, the female offspring show traits relevant to autism spectrum disorders, or ASD.

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In addition, the female offspring’s olfactory — or smell — discrimination of social odors is significantly compromised.

“Our data support a link between maternal toxicant exposures and abnormal social and repetitive behavior in mice offspring that is relevant to ASD. Humans mostly rely on faces to recognize people and most autistics show deficits in face-identity processing. Mice, on the other hand, rely on smell for social recognition. The female offspring of mother mice exposed to PBDEs showed olfactory deficits that dampened their ability to recognize other mice. In effect, these offspring do not distinguish new mice from familiar ones. Humans with ASD also show abnormal olfactory ability,” says Margarita Curras-Collazo, a professor of neuroscience, who led the study published in the journal Archives of Toxicology.

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On examining the brains of the offspring, specifically, gene expression for oxytocin, a neuropeptide involved in social recognition memory, it was found that oxytocin and other pro-social genes had changed.

This suggests that PBDEs target distinct brain systems to promote neurodevelopmental abnormalities.

“This shows that developmental PBDE exposure produces ASD-relevant neurochemical, olfactory, and social behavioral traits in adult female offspring that may result from early neurodevelopmental reprogramming within central social and memory neural networks,” says Elena Kozlova, a student in the UCR Neuroscience Graduate Program working in Curras-Collazo’s lab and the first author of the research paper.

However further investigation is required to confirm the toxicity of the flame retardant chemicals like PBDEs.

Source-Medindia