1] Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA [2] Department of Epidemiology, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, New York, NY, USA.
1] Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA [2] Department of Child Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Turku, Turku, Finland [3] Department of Child Psychiatry, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland.
Mol Psychiatry. 2014 Feb;19(2):259-64. doi: 10.1038/mp.2012.197. Epub 2013 Jan 22.
Autism is a complex neuropsychiatric syndrome with a largely unknown etiology. Inflammation during pregnancy may represent a common pathway by which infections and other insults increase risk for the disorder. Hence, we investigated the association between early gestational C-reactive protein (CRP), an established inflammatory biomarker, prospectively assayed in maternal sera, and childhood autism in a large national birth cohort with an extensive serum biobank. Other strengths of the cohort included nearly complete ascertainment of pregnancies in Finland (N=1.2 million) over the study period and national psychiatric registries consisting of virtually all treated autism cases in the population. Increasing maternal CRP levels, classified as a continuous variable, were significantly associated with autism in offspring. For maternal CRP levels in the highest quintile, compared with the lowest quintile, there was a significant, 43% elevated risk. This finding suggests that maternal inflammation may have a significant role in autism, with possible implications for identifying preventive strategies and pathogenic mechanisms in autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders.
自闭症是一种复杂的神经精神综合征，其病因在很大程度上尚不清楚。怀孕期间的炎症可能代表了一种常见的途径，通过这种途径，感染和其他损伤会增加患这种疾病的风险。因此，我们在一个拥有广泛血清生物库的大型全国出生队列中，前瞻性地检测了母亲血清中早期妊娠 C 反应蛋白 (CRP)（一种已建立的炎症生物标志物）与儿童自闭症之间的关联。该队列的其他优势包括在研究期间几乎完全确定了芬兰的妊娠情况（N=120 万），以及由人群中几乎所有自闭症治疗病例组成的国家精神病学登记处。母体 CRP 水平逐渐升高（分类为连续变量）与后代自闭症显著相关。与最低五分位相比，最高五分位的母亲 CRP 水平显著升高，自闭症风险增加了 43%。这一发现表明，母体炎症可能在自闭症中起重要作用，这可能对确定自闭症和其他神经发育障碍的预防策略和发病机制具有重要意义。
