Immune dysfunction in the cerebellum of mice lacking the autism candidate gene Engrailed 2.

ABSTRACT

Immune system dysfunction has been described in autism spectrum disorder. Here we tested the hypothesis that cerebellar defects are accompanied by immune dysfunction in adult mice lacking the autism-candidate gene Engrailed 2 (En2). Gene ontology analyses revealed that biological processes related to immune function were over-represented in the cerebellar transcriptome of En2-/- mice. Pro-inflammatory molecules and chemokines were reduced in the En2-/- cerebellum compared to controls. Conversely, pro-inflammatory molecules were increased in the peripheral blood of mutant mice. Our results suggest a link between immune dysfunction and cerebellar defects detected in En2-/- mice.