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	Podcast:		UC Science Today
	Episode:		How zebrafish provide insight into autism
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:03
	Publish Date:		2016-04-11 00:00:00
	Description:		Estrogen, the primary female hormone, may be an important player in the prevention of autism, and might explain why girls are less likely than boys to develop the disorder. Researcher Matthew State of the University of California, San Francisco found in zebrafish that estrogen compounds could reverse abnormal behaviors caused by a specific gene mutation. "The only way that you’re going to know what autism looks like in a zebrafish is to take a gene that you absolutely know leads to autism in humans, and then put that into a zebrafish, and figure out what does it do. Then we could take hundreds of compounds that might have an influence on brain function and expose the zebrafish and see whether or not any of the compounds correct the abnormality." When the zebrafish were exposed to estrogens, the autism-like behavior disappeared, but State says there is much more work to be done before this can be extended to humans. "To really know what it is that is causing someone to develop a social disability is a much more complicated question."
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