Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that affects social interactions and behavior. The number of children and adolescents with ASD treated in mental health services has been growing in recent years. Knowing clinical and familial characteristics of hospitalized patients with ASD and multidisciplinary approach are crucial for children and adolescents mental health professionals. In this study, 253 Turkish children and adolescents, with and without ASD, treated in psychiatry inpatient care unit were examined. Applied approaches such as medical consultation areas, psychiatric management of mothers, and pharmacological treatment during hospitalization, were studied. In addition to familial and clinical characteristics of patients with ASD, the benefits and the hospitalization conditions were evaluated. Patients with ASD showed a higher tendency on having relatives with a psychiatric disorder than the patients without ASD. A significant difference was found in terms of age, sex, and intellectual functioning, whereas length of stay did not differ drastically. Also, suicide attempts were significantly higher in patients without ASD than in patients with ASD. This study eases the management of hospitalized ASD patients with giving important information of clinical and familial characteristics.

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Research on areas such as social cognition, autistic traits, and minor physical anomalies in comorbid Specific Learning Disorder (SLD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is limited. In this study, we compared these areas in children aged between 8 and 14 with comorbid SLD and ADHD and their typically developed peers. Emotion recognition and social cognition were evaluated by Faces Test, Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, Comprehension Test, and Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale. Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire and Social Responsiveness Scale were used for screening of autism spectrum disorder in children. Furthermore, autistic traits in parents were measured by Autism-Spectrum Quotient. The MPAs of all the subjects were determined by pediatric geneticists. We detected that children with comorbid SLD and ADHD performed worse than controls in all social cognition tests and maternal AQ score had a strong correlation with the Faces Test, DERS, and SRS scores. Also, the total ASSQ score in the comorbid SLD and ADHD group was significantly higher than controls. Finally, MPAs were significantly more frequent in the comorbid SLD and ADHD group. Impairment in social cognition and evaluation of autistic traits and dysmorphology in children with comorbid SLD and ADHD may provide useful information on neurodevelopmental disorders.

Rhabdomyosarcoma (RMS) is a heterogeneous group of malignancies with features of impaired skeletal muscle differentiation and represents the majority of the soft tissue cancers in the pediatric age group. Current treatment regimens offer some clinical respite but at a significant risk of averse side effects and secondary tumors later in life. Identifying and targeting sub-populations with higher tumorigenic potential and self renewal capacity not only decreases tumor burden but also lowers the probability of relapse. Using the sphere formation assay we could select for self-renewing cells from the heterogeneous monolayer cultures of embryonal RMS (eRMS) cell lines, RD and Rh36, which had multipotent differentiation ability in vitro and greater tumorigenic potential in vivo. These cells also showed increased expression of embryonic stem cell genes. Interestingly, quantitative gene expression analysis revealed increased expression of various components of the Hedgehog pathway, a developmental pathway important in eRMS biology. Inhibition or activation of the pathway in vitro by small molecule agents led to increased or decreased self renewing ability respectively. Furthermore we observed that eRMS adherent monolayer cultures contained a sub-population of GLI1-positive cells which could be modulated by pathway manipulation. Importantly, inhibition of the hedgehog pathway in vitro led to significantly delayed tumor initiation in vivo. Ongoing experiments aim at confirming these results on the genetic level. We postulate that the Hedgehog pathway sustains a primitive cellular compartment necessary for tumor initiation within embryonal RMS cell lines. Citation Format: Sampoorna Satheesha, Nurhak Dogan, Elisa A. Casanova, Dagmar Walter, Beat W. Schäfer. Self-renewing cellular compartments in embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma are modulated by Hedgehog signaling. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2648. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2648