Modahl C, Green L, Fein D, Morris M, Waterhouse L, Feinstein C, Levin H
Boston University School of Medicine, Massachusetts, USA.
Biol Psychiatry. 1998 Feb 15;43(4):270-7. doi: 10.1016/s0006-3223(97)00439-3.
Social impairments are central to the syndrome of autism. The neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) has been implicated in the regulation of social behavior in animals but has not yet been examined in autistic subjects.
To determine whether autistic children have abnormalities in OT, midday plasma samples from 29 autistic and 30 age-matched normal children, all prepubertal, were analyzed by radioimmunoassay for levels of OT.
Despite individual variability and overlapping group distributions, the autistic group had significantly lower plasma OT levels than the normal group. OT increased with age in the normal but not the autistic children. Elevated OT was associated with higher scores on social and developmental measures for the normal children, but was associated with lower scores for the autistic children. These relationships were strongest in a subset of autistic children identified as aloof.
Although making inferences to central OT functioning from peripheral measurement is difficult, the data suggest that OT abnormalities may exist in autism, and that more direct investigation of central nervous system OT function is warranted.
社交障碍是自闭症综合征的核心特征。神经肽催产素（OT）与动物社交行为的调节有关，但尚未在自闭症患者中进行研究。
为了确定自闭症儿童是否存在OT异常，对29名自闭症儿童和30名年龄匹配的正常儿童（均为青春期前）的午间血浆样本进行放射免疫分析，以检测OT水平。
尽管个体存在差异且两组分布有重叠，但自闭症组的血浆OT水平显著低于正常组。正常儿童的OT水平随年龄增长而升高，而自闭症儿童则不然。OT水平升高与正常儿童在社交和发育指标上的较高得分相关，但与自闭症儿童的较低得分相关。这些关系在被认定为冷漠的一部分自闭症儿童中最为明显。
尽管从外周测量推断中枢OT功能很困难，但数据表明自闭症可能存在OT异常，因此有必要对中枢神经系统OT功能进行更直接的研究。
