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Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that lacks an ideal animal model to recapitulate the disease state of ASD. Previous studies have reported that transplanting gut microbiota of ASD patients into pregnant mice is sufficient to promote the changes of autism-like behavior in offspring. This study aims to explore whether fecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) can be used as a new method to establish the ASD animal model.Methods: We transplanted the fecal sample extract of ASD children into pregnant rats (rFMT) repeatedly to establish an ASD rat model (oFMT) and compare it with the classical valproic acid (VPA) model (oVPA).Results: First, we reveal that oFMT shows hypoevolutism and typical behavioral characteristics of ASD, consistent with the previous study. Second, the gut microbiota of oFMT mainly consists of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes, recapitulating the abnormal gut microbiota of ASD. In oFMT, the abundance of Lactobacillus and Collinsella increased (Lactobacillus: oFMT 60.16%, oVPA 64.13%, oCON 40.11%; Collinsella: oFMT 3.73%, oVPA 1.39%, oCON 1.28%), compared with oVPA, gut microbiota also showed high consistency. Third, the expression of 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in oFMT serum increased, γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and norepinephrine (NE) in oFMT serum decreased. Fourth, the gut microbiota of oFMT also has some ASD characteristic gut microbiota not found in oVPA. Fifth, pregnant rat with VPA showed significant immune activation, while those with FMT showed relatively minor immune activation.Limitations: Although the mechanism of establishing FMT autism rat model (oFMT) has not clearly defined, the data show that the model has high structural validity, and FMT model is likely to be a new and reliable potential animal model of ASD, and will have potential value in studying gut microbiota of ASD.Conclusions: The FMT autism rat model has high structural validity, and the FMT model is likely to be a new and reliable potential animal model of ASD.

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BACKGROUND Heavy metal pollution has become one of the most serious environmental problems. Novel approaches are needed for removal of heavy metal from water. Copper, a familiar heavy metal, has attracted much attention for its remarkable toxic domino offect at elevated concentrations. RESULTS A novel ion imprinted approach combined with microfluidic technology was explored. Cu2+ was taken as ionic template and chitosan was used as carrier material. Chemical crosslinking was applied in the formation of imprinted sign. A selective biosorbent of ion‐imprinted microspheres (IIMS) with uniform size, regular shape and high performance for Cu2+ had been prepared. The SEM, FTIR, EDS, XPS were employed to detect their distinct features. IIMS showed much higher adsorption capacity (qm=81.97 mg g−1) than those non‐imprinted chitosan microspheres (CSMS). The adsorption isotherm fitted the Langmuir equation while thermodynamic adsorption results were considered strong proof of an adsorption exothermal process. IIMS exhibited excellent selectivity for Cu2+ when competitive metal ions and Cu2+ co‐existed together, which profited from the specific spaces of Cu2+ template left after crosslinking and desorption. Results confirmed that chemical adsorption was dominant and amino played an important role in adsorption process. CONCLUSION IIMS showed high adsorption capacity and excellent selectivity for Cu2+. Combining microfluidic technology with an ion‐imprinted method proved to be a promising process for preparing selective materials. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry

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