Paşca Sergiu P, Nemeş Bogdan, Vlase Laurian, Gagyi Cristina E, Dronca Eleonora, Miu Andrei C, Dronca Maria
Faculty of Medicine, Iuliu Haieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
Life Sci. 2006 Apr 4;78(19):2244-8. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2005.09.040. Epub 2005 Nov 17.
Autism is a behaviorally defined disorder of unknown etiology that is thought to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors. High levels of homocysteine and oxidative stress are generally associated with neuropsychiatric disorders. The purpose of this study was to compare the level of homocysteine and other biomarkers in children with autism to corresponding values in age-matched healthy children. We measured total homocysteine (tHcy), vitamin B(12), paraoxonase and arylesterase activities of human paraoxonase 1 (PON1) in plasma and glutathione peroxidase (GPx) activity in erythrocytes from 21 children: 12 with autism (age: 8.29 +/- 2.76 years) and 9 controls (age: 8.33 +/- 1.82 years). We found statistically significant differences in tHcy levels and in arylesterase activity of PON1 in children with autism compared to the control group: 9.83 +/- 2.75 vs. 7.51 +/- 0.93 micromol/L (P < or =0.01) and 72.57 +/- 11.73 vs. 81.83 +/- 7.39 kU/L (P < or =0.005). In the autistic group there was a strong negative correlation between tHcy and GPx activity and the vitamin B(12) level was low or suboptimal. In conclusion, our study shows that in children with autism there are higher levels of tHcy, which is negatively correlated with GPx activity, low PON1 arylesterase activity and suboptimal levels of vitamin B(12).
自闭症是一种病因不明的行为学定义的疾病，被认为受遗传和环境因素影响。高同型半胱氨酸水平和氧化应激通常与神经精神疾病相关。本研究的目的是比较自闭症儿童与年龄匹配的健康儿童的同型半胱氨酸水平及其他生物标志物。我们测量了21名儿童血浆中的总同型半胱氨酸（tHcy）、维生素B12、对氧磷酶和人对氧磷酶1（PON1）的芳基酯酶活性以及红细胞中的谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶（GPx）活性：12名自闭症儿童（年龄：8.29±2.76岁）和9名对照组儿童（年龄：8.33±1.82岁）。我们发现，与对照组相比，自闭症儿童的tHcy水平和PON1的芳基酯酶活性存在统计学显著差异：分别为9.83±2.75 vs. 7.51±0.93 μmol/L（P≤0.01）和72.57±11.73 vs. 81.83±7.39 kU/L（P≤0.005）。在自闭症组中，tHcy与GPx活性之间存在强负相关，且维生素B12水平较低或未达最佳水平。总之，我们的研究表明，自闭症儿童的tHcy水平较高，与GPx活性呈负相关，PON1芳基酯酶活性较低，且维生素B12水平未达最佳。
