Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2006 Oct 5; [Epub ahead of print]

Decreased serum levels of transforming growth factor-beta1 in patients with autism.

Okada K, Hashimoto K, Iwata Y, Nakamura K, Tsujii M, Tsuchiya KJ, Sekine Y, Suda S, Suzuki K, Sugihara GI, Matsuzaki H, Sugiyama T, Kawai M, Minabe Y, Takei N, Mori N. Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka 431-3192, Japan.

BACKGROUND: The neurobiological basis for autism remains poorly understood. Given the key role of transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) in brain development, we hypothesized that TGF-beta1 plays a role in the pathophysiology of autism. In this study, we studied whether serum levels of TGF-beta1 are altered in patients with autism. METHODS: We measured serum levels of TGF-beta1 in 19 male adult patients with autism and 21 age-matched male healthy subjects using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). RESULTS: The serum levels (7.34+/-5.21 ng/mL (mean+/-S.D.)) of TGF-beta1 in the patients with autism were significantly (z=-5.106, p<0.001) lower than those (14.48+/-1.64 ng/mL (mean+/-S.D.)) of normal controls. However, there were no marked or significant correlations between serum TGF-beta1 levels and other clinical variables, including Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) scores, Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), aggression, Theory of Mind, and Intellectual Quotient (IQ) in patients. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that decreased levels of TGF-beta1 may be implicated in the pathophysiology of autism.

PMID: 17030376 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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