Autism is a profound disorder of neurodevelopment with poorly understood biological
origins. A potential role for maternal autoantibodies in the etiology of some cases of autism
has been proposed in previous studies. To investigate this hypothesis, maternal plasma
antibodies against human fetal and adult brain proteins were analyzed by western blot in 61
mothers of children with autistic disorder and 102 controls matched for maternal age and
birth year (62 mothers of typically developing children (TD) and 40 mothers of children with�…