Marinović-Curin Jasna, Marinović-Terzić Ivana, Bujas-Petković Zorana, Zekan Ljubinka, Skrabić Veselin, Dogas Zoran, Terzić Janos
Department of Psychiatry, Clinical Hospital Split, Split, Croatia.
Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2008 Feb;17(1):39-43. doi: 10.1007/s00787-007-0632-1. Epub 2007 Sep 14.
Autism is a hereditary, pervasive neurodevelopmental disorder that starts early in life. The main characteristics of the autism are impairment in social interactions, difficulties in adapting to novel environmental situations and improper reaction to stress. Since the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenocortical (HPA) axis plays a key role in the response to stress and because the previous research found abnormalities in HPA system, we conducted a study to test several elements of the HPA axis. Because autism is a heritable disorder, autistic subjects were studied as well as their parents. Cortisol circadian rhythm, cortisol daily secretion and its suppression response to dexamethasone had been measured from saliva or urine samples of the autistic children and their parents. Cortisol secretion response after ACTH stimulation was done with the autistic children only. The cortisol elevation after ACTH stimulation among the autistic individuals was slower (P = 0.017) than in healthy controls. No differences were found in salivary cortisol circadian rhythm or suppression response, as well as in cortisol daily excretion. These data indicate that, compared to healthy subjects, autistic individuals have fine differences in cortisol response to ACTH stimulation or possibly to other types of stress.
自闭症是一种遗传性的广泛性神经发育障碍，起病于生命早期。自闭症的主要特征包括社交互动受损、难以适应新环境以及对应激的不适当反应。由于下丘脑 - 垂体 - 肾上腺皮质（HPA）轴在应激反应中起关键作用，且先前的研究发现HPA系统存在异常，我们开展了一项研究来测试HPA轴的几个要素。由于自闭症是一种遗传性疾病，我们对自闭症患者及其父母进行了研究。通过自闭症儿童及其父母的唾液或尿液样本测量了皮质醇昼夜节律、皮质醇每日分泌量及其对地塞米松的抑制反应。仅对自闭症儿童进行了促肾上腺皮质激素（ACTH）刺激后的皮质醇分泌反应测试。自闭症个体在ACTH刺激后的皮质醇升高比健康对照组慢（P = 0.017）。在唾液皮质醇昼夜节律、抑制反应以及皮质醇每日排泄量方面未发现差异。这些数据表明，与健康受试者相比，自闭症个体在皮质醇对ACTH刺激或可能对其他类型应激的反应方面存在细微差异。
