Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2008 Mar;29(2):226-31.
doi: 10.1016/j.neuro.2007.10.010. Epub 2007 Nov 6.

Autism: maternally derived antibodies specific for fetal brain proteins

Daniel Braunschweig  1 , Paul Ashwood, Paula Krakowiak, Irva Hertz-Picciotto, Robin Hansen, Lisa A Croen, Isaac N Pessah, Judy Van de Water
Affiliations

Autism: maternally derived antibodies specific for fetal brain proteins

Daniel Braunschweig et al. Neurotoxicology. 2008 Mar.

Abstract

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 non-ASD developmental delays (DD)). We observed reactivity to two protein bands at approximately 73 and 37kDa in plasma from 7 of 61 (11.5%) mothers of children with autism (AU) against fetal but not adult brain, which was not noted in either control group (TD; 0/62 p=0.0061 and DD; 0/40 p=0.0401). Further, the presence of reactivity to these two bands was associated with parent report of behavioral regression in AU children when compared to the TD (p=0.0019) and DD (0.0089) groups. Individual reactivity to the 37kDa band was observed significantly more often in the AU population compared with TD (p=0.0086) and DD (p=0.002) mothers, yielding a 5.69-fold odds ratio (95% confidence interval 2.09-15.51) associated with this band. The presence of these antibodies in the plasma of some mothers of children with autism, as well as the differential findings between mothers of children with early onset and regressive autism may suggest an association between the transfer of IgG autoantibodies during early neurodevelopment and the risk of developing of autism in some children.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Reactivity of maternal IgG against human fetal brain proteins is illustrated by western blot. Depicted are representative samples from the mothers of children with autism (AU) demonstrating typical patterns of reactivity against human fetal brain extract. Shown are the predominant bands at 73 kDa (upper arrows), 37 kDa (middle AU strip) and the 73 and 37 kDa (upper and lower arrows) bands, which are most specific for a diagnosis of autism. Plasma from three representative mothers of typically developing children from the general population lacks a response to human fetal brain. Similarly, the mothers of children with developmental delay but not autism (DD) do not express reactivity to the proteins recognized by the mothers of AU children.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Tissue specificity of maternal antibody reactivity. Plasma antibodies of mothers of children with autism and controls were assessed for reactivity against human proteins from tissues other than fetal brain. Note that the significant bands visualized for fetal brain are absent in adult brain, duodenum, and kidney. F= Fetal Brain; A= Adult Brain; D= Duodenum; K= Kidney.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. APA . Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV. American Psychiatric Association; Washington, DC: 1994. p. 886.
    1. Bailey A, Le Couteur A, Gottesman I, Bolton P, Simonoff E, Yuzda E, Rutter M. Autism as a strongly genetic disorder: evidence from a British twin study. Psychol Med. 1995;25:63–77. - PubMed
    1. Cabanlit M, Wills S, Goines P, Ashwood P, Van de Water J. Brain-specific Autoantibodies in the Plasma of Subjects with Autistic Spectrum Disorders. PNYAS. 2007 In Press. - PubMed
    1. Dalton P, Deacon R, Blamire A, Pike M, McKinlay I, Stein J, Styles P, Vincent A. Maternal neuronal antibodies associated with autism and a language disorder. Ann Neurol. 2003;53:533–537. - PubMed
    1. DiLavore PC, Lord C, Rutter M. The pre-linguistic autism diagnostic observation schedule. J Autism Dev Disord. 1995;25:355–379. - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

LinkOut - more resources