Re: Autism-> maternal autoimmune disease

[Guest guest]

Great article!

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> wow- don't you just love these 'groundbreaking' discoveries?

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> doris

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> Autism May Be Linked to Mom's Autoimmune Disease

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<http://us.rd./dailynews/hsn/SIG=10r2efrkl/*http://www.healthday.com/>

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> by Reinberg

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> HealthDay Reporter by Reinberg

> healthday Reporter - Mon Jul 6, 7:04 pm ET

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> MONDAY, July 6 (HealthDay News) -- Children of mothers who have

> autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and

> celiac disease have up to a three times greater risk for autism, a new

> study finds.

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> Although the association between autism and a maternal history of type 1

> diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis had been found in earlier research,

> the researchers behind the new study say that theirs is the first to

> find a link between autism and celiac disease. People with celiac

> disease cannot tolerate gluten, a protein in wheat, rye and barley.

>

> " This finding reinforces the suggestion that autoimmune processes are

> connected somehow with the cause of autism and autism spectrum

> disorder, " said researcher W. Eaton, chairman of the Department

> of Mental Health at the Bloomberg School of Public Health at s

> Hopkins University. " This finding is on the pathway of finding the cause

> of autism. "

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> Eaton noted that there is no clinical significance to the finding but

> that it could guide future research as scientists try to pin down the

> cause or causes of autism.

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> One reason autoimmune diseases might have a role in autism is genetic,

> Eaton said. Children who are born underweight or premature are at higher

> risk for autism, and both of these obstetric problems are associated

> with celiac disease, he added.

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> " There may be an overlap in the genetics of some of the autoimmune

> diseases and autism that would not be trivial, " he said. " Autism is

> strongly inherited, but we don't have the faintest idea where. But this

> may point a flashlight to areas of the genome that connect to autism. "

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> In addition, there might also be environmental triggers that affect the

> fetus, he said.

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> The report is published in the July 6 online edition of Pediatrics.

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> For the study, Eaton's team collected data on 3,325 Danish children

> diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, including 1,089 diagnosed with

> infantile autism. The children were born between 1993 and 2004, and

> their data was part of the Danish National Psychiatric Registry. Data on

> family members with autoimmune diseases came from the Danish National

> Hospital Register.

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> The researchers found that children whose mothers had autoimmune disease

> were at a higher risk of developing autism spectrum disorder than

> children of mothers who did not have these conditions. In addition, the

> risk of infantile autism was increased in children with a family history

> of type 1 diabetes.

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> The increased risk that autoimmune diseases contribute to autism is not

> huge, Eaton said.

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> " The increased risk for type 1 diabetes is a little less than two times,

> for rheumatoid arthritis it's about 1.5 times and for celiac disease

> it's more than three times, " Eaton said. " That's enough to impress an

> epidemiologist, but not enough to make anybody in the general population

> start changing their behavior. "

>

> Dr. Hjordis O. Atladottir, from the Institute of Public Health at the

> University of Aarhus in Denmark and the study's lead researcher, said

> that the findings are important because they support the theory that

> autism is somehow associated with disturbances in the immune system.

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> " It is important to emphasize that these results should not cause worry

> or be unsettling for parents or future parents with any of the

> above-mentioned diseases, " Atladottir said. " The large majority of

> people affected by an autoimmune disease do not have children with autism. "

>

> Autism expert Dr. Brosco, a professor of clinical pediatrics at

> the University of Miami School of Medicine, said the study

> reinforces the association between autism and a mother's autoimmune

> disease or, in the cases of type 1 diabetes, a mother's or father's

> condition.

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> " This study confirms that we still don't know what's going on in autism

> but suggests there is something interesting about autoimmune diseases in

> parents of children with autism, " Brosco said.

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> Though there seems to be a connection between autism and some parental

> autoimmune diseases, he said, the mechanism of that interaction is not

> known. It could be associated with the diseases themselves, it could be

> that the genes associated with autoimmune diseases and autism are

> located near each other or it could be that an autoimmune disease

> changes the quality of a pregnancy, which results in circumstances that

> increase the risk for autism, Brosco explained.

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> " These findings are not going to change anything anyone does, " Brosco

> said. " You are not going to treat any patients differently. There is no

> strong evidence for changing clinical practice, but it does help

> scientists who are interested in autism understand what are the next

> questions to ask. "

>

> Geraldine Dawson, chief science officer for Autism Speaks, said that

> evidence is increasing that the immune system might have a role in autism.

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> " One of the things we are realizing about autism is that it is not one

> disease but rather many different diseases or conditions that has many

> different etiologies, " Dawson said. " This may be one cause or one risk

> factor, and if it interacts with a genetic vulnerability, it can

> increase the risk for autism, " she said.

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