Wang Ni, Zhao Yuqian, Gao Junwei
Nursing Office of Beijing Road Medical District, General Hospital of Xinjiang Military Region, Wulumuqi, China.
Independent Researcher, Cangzhou, China.
Front Psychiatry. 2021 Sep 30;12:742937. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2021.742937. eCollection 2021.
Vitamin A is an essential fat-soluble micronutrient that plays important roles in a surprisingly wide variety of biological processes from early growth and development to brain maintenance. Numerous clinical studies have been conducted to explore the relationship between peripheral vitamin A levels and autism spectrum disorder (ASD), but the results of these studies are controversial. Therefore, we assessed the association between peripheral vitamin A levels and ASD in the present meta-analysis. Relevant records were retrieved through the Embase, Web of Knowledge and PubMed databases up to 13 November 2020. Reference lists were also searched and analyzed. Hedges' g with its corresponding 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association between peripheral vitamin A levels and ASD. A fixed or random effects model was selected according to a heterogeneity test in overall and subgroup analyses. Five records (six studies) with 935 ASD children and 516 healthy children were included in the present study. Significantly decreased peripheral vitamin A concentrations were observed in ASD children compared with healthy children (Hedges' g = -0.600, 95% CI -1.153 to -0.048, = 0.033). A similar result was also obtained after removing the studies identified by Galbraith plots. In addition, no obvious publication bias was found in the meta-analysis. The findings of our meta-analysis suggested decreased peripheral vitamin A levels in ASD children compared with healthy children. Further investigations into the effects of vitamin A on the development of ASD are warranted.
维生素A是一种必需的脂溶性微量营养素，在从早期生长发育到大脑维持等各种各样的生物过程中发挥着重要作用。已经进行了大量临床研究来探索外周血维生素A水平与自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）之间的关系，但这些研究结果存在争议。因此，我们在本荟萃分析中评估了外周血维生素A水平与ASD之间的关联。通过Embase、Web of Knowledge和PubMed数据库检索截至2020年11月13日的相关记录。还对参考文献列表进行了检索和分析。采用Hedges' g及其相应的95%置信区间（CI）来评估外周血维生素A水平与ASD之间的关联。在总体和亚组分析中，根据异质性检验选择固定效应模型或随机效应模型。本研究纳入了5篇记录（6项研究），共935例ASD儿童和516例健康儿童。与健康儿童相比，ASD儿童外周血维生素A浓度显著降低（Hedges' g = -0.600，95% CI -1.153至-0.048，P = 0.033）。在去除通过Galbraith图识别的研究后，也得到了类似的结果。此外，在荟萃分析中未发现明显的发表偏倚。我们荟萃分析的结果表明，与健康儿童相比，ASD儿童外周血维生素A水平降低。有必要进一步研究维生素A对ASD发展的影响。
