Plasma amino acid profile in autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

OBJECTIVE

In our study, we aimed to reveal pathophysiologic mechanisms in ASD by comparing plasma amino acid levels between patients and healthy controls while considering vitamin B12 and D levels.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The study included 21 patients aged 2-18 years-old who were followed with a diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 21 age and sex-matched healthy children from our outpatient clinic as control group.

RESULTS

The study included 42 children and adolescents aged 2-18 years-old (19 girls and 23 boys). There were no significant differences in terms of body weight and height between the groups. We found significant differences in levels of ammonium, phosphoethanolamine, histidine, homocysteine, carnosine, methionine, cystathionine, cystine, threonine, 3-methyl histidine and phenylalanine/tyrosine ratio between patient and control groups. Both vitamin B12 and D were significantly lower in the ASD group compared to controls. In the variance analysis with vitamin B12 and D as covariates, significant differences persisted for only phosphoethanolamine (p=0.04), cystathionine (p<0.001), cystine (p=0.006) and threonine (p=0.02).

CONCLUSIONS

Further studies are needed on the amino acids that show variations in children with ASD in order to reveal their role in the etiology and therapeutic use in ASD.

The effects of prednisolone and serum malondialdehyde levels in puppies with experimentally induced meconium aspiration syndrome

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different doses of prednisolone in puppies experimentally induced with meconium aspiration syndrome (MAS). Meconium was collected from human babies in the first day of life and was released into the trachea of 11 newborn puppies to induce MAS. Puppies were treated with 2 mg/kg prednisolone (standard dose), 30 mg/kg prednisolone (megadose) or 0.9% saline, all administered intravenously. The study ended 20 h after meconium aspiration and the lungs were then scored for histopathology. Animals not treated with prednisolone deteriorated after 8 h while respiration rate, oxygenation, pH and partial pressure of carbon dioxide values were better in the prednisolone-treated groups. Histopathology scores were better in the treatment groups compared with the control group, with megadose giving the best result. At the end of the study, serum malondialdehyde levels were significantly higher in the megadose prednisolone group compared with the other two groups. In conclusion, we determined that prednisolone reduced physiological and histological changes in puppies with MAS and that a 30 mg/kg dose was more effective than 2 mg/kg.