Autism may involve autoimmunity to brain. We studied regional distribution of antibodies to rat caudate nucleus, cerebral cortex, cerebellum, brain stem and hippocampus. The study included 30 normal and 68 autistic children. Antibodies were assayed by immunoblotting. Autistic children, but not normal children, had antibodies to caudate nucleus (49% positive sera), cerebral cortex (18% positive sera) and cerebellum (9% positive sera). Brain stem and hippocampus were negative. Antibodies to caudate nucleus were directed towards three proteins having 160, 115 and 49 kD molecular weights. Since a significant number of autistic children had antibodies to caudate nucleus, we propose that an autoimmune reaction to this brain region may cause neurological impairments in autistic children. Thus, the caudate nucleus might be involved in the neurobiology of autism. q 2003 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.Keywords: Autism; Autoimmunity; Caudate nucleus; Antibodies; Neurobiology Autism is an early-onset disorder of the developing central nervous system (CNS). The disorder causes severe deficits of higher mental functions such as social interaction, language, communication, imagination and cognition. Today, autism is the fastest-growing developmental disability in children. Autism affects more than one-half of a million Americans and millions more worldwide but very little is known about the etiology and pathogenesis of the disorder. Current theories include genetic factors, immune factors, environmental factors and yet other unidentified factors. We focused on immune factors such as autoimmunity and provided supporting evidence for 'autoimmune hypothesis' in autism [9][10][11][12][13][14]. Autoimmunity in autistic children is shown by several autoimmune factors: brain-specific antibodies [10], impaired lymphocyte functions [3,6,[15][16][17], abnormal cytokine regulation [11], viral associations [10,12,13] and indirect association of certain immunogenetic factors [16]. In the present study, our goal was to determine if autistic children harbor brain-specific antibodies, particularly with regards to different brain regions. We selected five brain regions for our study: caudate nucleus (Cn), cerebral cortex (Cx), cerebellum (Cb), brain stem (Bs) and hippocampus (Hpc). Laboratory results described here provide initial evidence for an autoimmune reaction to caudate nucleus in children with autism.The study included 68 autistic children aged 4-12 years and 30 normal children aged 5 -12 years. Of the 68 autistic children, eight had a diagnosis of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) and the remainder 60 cases had a diagnosis of autism. The clinical diagnosis of autism and/or PDD relied essentially on the standard DSM-IV criteria of the American Association of Psychiatrists, Washington, DC. The Institutional Review Board or the ethical committee of Utah State University reviewed and approved our research protocol that involved the use of blood samples from children. All children were at the baseline without any t...

Autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder, may involve autoimmune pathogenesis. Since mercury is potentially a risk factor for autoimmunity, we conducted a study of mercury-induced antinuclear and antilaminin antibodies in autistic and normal children who had been pre-administered with thimerosal-containing vaccines. Laboratory analysis by different immunoassays showed that the serum level of these two autoimmune markers did not significantly differ between autistic and normal children. This finding suggests that the mercury as in thimerosal-containing vaccines is likely not related to autoimmune phenomenon in autism.

Autism, a neurodevelopmental disorder, may involve autoimmune pathogenesis. Since mercury is potentially a risk factor for autoimmunity, we conducted a study of mercury-induced antinuclear and antilaminin antibodies in autistic and normal children who had been pre-administered with thimerosal-containing vaccines. Laboratory analysis by different immunoassays showed that the serum level of these two autoimmune markers did not significantly differ between autistic and normal children. This finding suggests that the mercury as in thimerosal-containing vaccines is likely not related to autoimmune phenomenon in autism.