Fig. 4From: Vitamin D treatment during pregnancy prevents autism-related phenotypes in a mouse model of maternal immune activationAcquisition of fear memory, association with context and fear memory behavior in juvenile offspring who were exposed to prenatal immune challenge (POL) or prenatal vitamin D treatment (VitD). a MIA exposed mice had an impaired ability to acquire a conditioned fear response. The percentage time freezing to successive CS-US trials was significantly lower in poly(I:C)-treated mice compared to controls (*P < 0.05). This MIA-induced reduction in fear acquisition was not evident when VitD was co-administered suggesting that vitamin D blocked the effects of MIA on emotional learning. b Prenatal treatment had no effect on context-cued conditioned fear expression. c Poly(I:C)-exposed mice had reduced expression of CS-cued conditioned fear when re-exposed to the CS-tone; relative to CON/VEH (***P < 0.001) and relative to CON/VITD or POL/VITD (**P < 0.01). Hence, maternal exposure to VitD appeared to normalize the deficit in CS-cued conditioned fear in MIA animals. All values are mean ± SEM (n = 8)Back to article page