Figure 2.

Fullerenols treatment reversed social deficits in BTBR mice but did not improve repetitive behavior. (A) Representative heat maps showing the total time and position of C57 and BTBR mice in a 10-minute three-chamber social test. The redder the hue, the longer the mouse spends exploring it. “S” and “O” represent the novel mouse and object, respectively. (B) In the three-chamber test, fullerenols or SAL did not affect the sociability of C57 mice, which stayed longer in the side chamber of the novel mice. BTBR mice showed low interest in the lateral chambers of novel mice, while fullerenols treatment significantly improved the social deficits of BTBR mice. (C) In the three-chamber test, SAL and fullerenols-treated C57 mice spent more time sniffing novel mice, while the time spent sniffing novel mice of BTBR mice showed a decreasing trend. Notably, fullerenols treatment increased the time for BTBR mice to sniff novel mice. (D and E) The preference index from chamber time (D) and sniffing time (E) of BTBR mice was significantly restored to the C57 mice after fullerenols treatment. (F and G) The time of self-grooming (F) and the number of buried marbles (G) in BTBR mice were more than those in C57 mice, and fullerenols treatment did not change the self-grooming time and the number of marbles buried in BTBR mice. Data are presented as mean ± SEM. N = 9. *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001, ****P< 0.0001.