Abstract
Abstract
Prenatal valproic acid (VPA) exposure models selected neurodevelopmental behavioural domains, but no single rodent assay represents autism spectrum disorder as a whole. We analysed individual-animal records from male Sprague-Dawley offspring in Control, VPA, parecoxib 10 mg/kg and 20 mg/kg groups, with eight recorded animals per group. Offspring were weaned at PND21, began postnatal dosing at PND35 and received daily intraperitoneal parecoxib or saline for 21 days. Behavioural testing began about 1 h after the final administration. Each 15-min open-field and self-grooming session used the first 5 min for adaptation and the final 10 min for analysis. Self-grooming frequency differed among groups (one-way ANOVA \(F_{3,28}=33.94\), \(p<0.001\)), as did duration (Welch ANOVA \(F_{3,14.82}=23.54\), \(p<0.001\)); parecoxib groups showed lower values than VPA. Total open-field distance also differed among groups (one-way ANOVA \(F_{3,28}=26.44\), \(p<0.001\)); both parecoxib groups showed higher recorded distance than VPA. Centre-zone outcomes were less consistent and treated as exploratory. These findings support behavioural differences associated with the parecoxib groups in the VPA model, but do not establish clinical efficacy, a dose-response relationship, target engagement or a molecular mechanism.