Autism-> maternal autoimmune disease

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

doris

Autism May Be Linked to Mom's Autoimmune Disease

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by Reinberg

HealthDay Reporter by Reinberg

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

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.

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. "

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.

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.

" 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. "

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

fetus, he said.

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

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.

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.

The increased risk that autoimmune diseases contribute to autism is not

huge, Eaton said.

" 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.

" 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.

" 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.

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.

" 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.

" 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.