ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2007
Maternal immune activation alters fetal brain development through interleukin-6.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 839 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
An Open-Label Trial of Tocilizumab in Schizophrenia
A Randomized Controlled Trial of Adjunctive Siltuximab in Schizophrenia
Who cites it
839 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 1,606 citations in OpenAlex.
- From placenta to the foetus: a systematic review of in vitro models of stress- and inflammation-induced depression in pregnancy.Molecular psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Outcomes of autologous bone marrow mononuclear cell administration combined with educational intervention in the treatment of autism spectrum disorder: a randomized, open-label, controlled phase II clinical trial.Stem cell research & therapy · 2025Trial
- Effect of a Mediterranean Diet or Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction During Pregnancy on Child Neurodevelopment: A Prespecified Analysis of the IMPACT BCN Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2023Trial
- Defining the mechanisms of neuroinflammation and antepartum neuroprotection in human neural progenitor cells and microglia.AJOG global reports · 2026Article
- Prenatal exposure to environmental stressors alters gut macrophage development and gastrointestinal function of male offspring.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2026Article
- Paternal cytokine administration alters sperm small ncRNAs and offspring brain and behavior.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Maternal-fetal immune conflict contributes to male-specific impairments in a mouse model of neurodevelopmental disorders.Science advances · 2026Article
- Prenatal Stress Induced by Maternal Immune Activation Disrupts GABAergic Inhibition and Mossy Fiber Plasticity in the Rat Dentate Gyrus-CA3 Circuit.Hippocampus · 2026Article
- Decoding neurodevelopment risks of exposures to intoxication, infection, and trauma during pregnancy.Pregnancy (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2026Review
- Feto-Maternal Microchimerism and the Brain: Mechanisms, Neurological Implications, and Translational Perspectives.American journal of reproductive immunology (New York, N.Y. : 1989) · 2026Review
- Dynamic neuro-immune regulation of psychiatric risk loci in human neurons.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Prenatal targeted maternal pregnancy metabolomic profiles, child emotional and behavioral problems, and autism related traits in the NYU CHES cohort.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- The role of astrocytes in autism spectrum disorder and associated syndromes: Evidence, animal models, mechanisms, and therapeutic potential.Zoological research · 2026Review
- Exploring offspring behaviour after prenatal COVID-19 vaccination in mice.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Maternal sleep deprivation and developmental programming of brain aging trajectories in offspring.Biogerontology · 2026Review
- Placental and juvenile immune responses to maternal immune activation are differentially regulated by sex chromosomes and gonads across gestation.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2026Article
- The Role of Complement and CD4 T Cells in Preeclampsia and Offspring Neurodevelopment.Current opinion in physiology · 2026Article
- Review
- Modeling Prenatal Immune Activation in Human Brain Organoids Uncovers IL-6-Dependent Interneuron Dysmaturation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Ventromedial hypothalamus IL-6 signaling mediates the excessive aggressive behavior induced by late-gestational sleep deprivation in male mice.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2026Article
779 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Schizophrenia and autism are thought to result from the interaction between a susceptibility genotype and environmental risk factors. The offspring of women who experience infection while pregnant have an increased risk for these disorders. Maternal immune activation (MIA) in pregnant rodents produces offspring with abnormalities in behavior, histology, and gene expression that are reminiscent of schizophrenia and autism, making MIA a useful model of the disorders. However, the mechanism by which MIA causes long-term behavioral deficits in the offspring is unknown. Here we show that the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) is critical for mediating the behavioral and transcriptional changes in the offspring. A single maternal injection of IL-6 on day 12.5 of mouse pregnancy causes prepulse inhibition (PPI) and latent inhibition (LI) deficits in the adult offspring. Moreover, coadministration of an anti-IL-6 antibody in the poly(I:C) model of MIA prevents the PPI, LI, and exploratory and social deficits caused by poly(I:C) and normalizes the associated changes in gene expression in the brains of adult offspring. Finally, MIA in IL-6 knock-out mice does not result in several of the behavioral changes seen in the offspring of wild-type mice after MIA. The identification of IL-6 as a key intermediary should aid in the molecular dissection of the pathways whereby MIA alters fetal brain development, which can shed new light on the pathophysiological mechanisms that predispose to schizophrenia and autism.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.