A vitamin D enriched diet attenuates sex-specific behavioral deficits in the NS-Pten knockout mouse.

Individuals who experience recurrent spontaneous seizures are at a high risk for bone fractures as well as an increased likelihood of a comorbid diagnosis of Autism spectrum disorder. Additionally, individuals with epilepsy could have vitamin D deficiencies. The neural subset-specific (NS) Pten knockout (KO) mouse has shown autistic-like deficits and has a lower bone mineral density. We examined the effect of a vitamin D enriched diet in the NS-Pten KO mouse. Results indicated that a vitamin D diet attenuated altered activity levels in male NS-Pten KO mice. NS-Pten KO animals exhibited a reduction in sociability, however in male wildtype mice, vitamin D increased sociability. There was a significant effect of genotype and death, and between diet and death, finding that only CTL NS-Pten KO animals died. Overall, these findings suggest that a vitamin D enriched diet had a significant impact on the behavioral phenotype and survivability of NS-Pten KO mice.