1Department of Neonatology, Children’s Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai 201102, China
2Institute of Neuroscience, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China

Abstract 

Autism is an etiologically heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders, diagnosed mostly by the clinical behavioral phenotypes. The concept that the tumor-related gene PTEN plays a critical role in autism spectrum disorder has emerged over the last decade. In this review, we focus on the essential role of the PTEN signaling pathway in neuronal differentiation and the formation of neural circuitry, as well as genetic mouse models with Pten manipulations. Particularly, accumulated data suggest that the effect of PTEN on neural stem-cell development contributes significantly to the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorders.

Keywords

PTEN; TSC1/2; autism; synapse; neural stem cells

[SpringerLink]