Research Center for Child Mental Development, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan.
Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Japan.
Mol Autism. 2011 Oct 19;2:16. doi: 10.1186/2040-2392-2-16.
The neurobiological basis of autism remains poorly understood. The diagnosis of autism is based solely on behavioural characteristics because there are currently no reliable biological markers. To test whether the anterior pituitary hormones and cortisol could be useful as biological markers for autism, we assessed the basal serum levels of these hormones in subjects with autism and normal controls.
Using a suspension array system, we determined the serum levels of six anterior pituitary hormones, including adrenocorticotropic hormone and growth hormone, in 32 drug-naive subjects (aged 6 to 18 years, all boys) with autism, and 34 healthy controls matched for age and gender. We also determined cortisol levels in these subjects by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Serum levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone, growth hormone and cortisol were significantly higher in subjects with autism than in controls. In addition, there was a significantly positive correlation between cortisol and adrenocorticotropic hormone levels in autism.
Our results suggest that increased basal serum levels of adrenocorticotropic hormone accompanied by increased cortisol and growth hormone may be useful biological markers for autism.
自闭症的神经生物学基础仍未被充分理解。自闭症的诊断仅基于行为特征，因为目前尚无可靠的生物学标志物。为了测试垂体前叶激素和皮质醇是否可作为自闭症的生物标志物，我们评估了自闭症患者和正常对照者的基础血清激素水平。
使用悬浮阵列系统，我们测定了 32 名未经药物治疗的自闭症患者（年龄 6 至 18 岁，均为男性）和 34 名年龄和性别匹配的健康对照者的六种垂体前叶激素（包括促肾上腺皮质激素和生长激素）的血清水平。我们还通过酶联免疫吸附试验测定了这些患者的皮质醇水平。自闭症患者的促肾上腺皮质激素、生长激素和皮质醇血清水平明显高于对照组。此外，自闭症患者中皮质醇和促肾上腺皮质激素水平呈显著正相关。
我们的结果表明，基础促肾上腺皮质激素血清水平升高，同时皮质醇和生长激素升高，可能是自闭症的有用生物标志物。
