healthmedicinet

Daily News and Tips

Autism in young boys ‘linked to high levels of hormones in the womb’

  • Children who go on to develop autism are exposed to high levels of the hormones testosterone, progesterone and cortisol before birth
  • Some of the hormones are produced in higher quantities in boys than girls
  • Researchers say findings could explain why autism is more common in males

By
Emma Innes


Published:

09:44 EST, 4 June 2014

|
Updated:

12:37 EST, 4 June 2014

Children who develop autism were exposed to high levels of certain hormones when they were in the womb

Exposure to high levels of ‘male’ hormones in the womb increases the chance a baby boy will develop autism, new research has revealed.

The study showed children who develop the developmental disability are subjected to elevated levels of the hormones testosterone, progesterone and cortisol before birth.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge and the Statens Serum Institute in Copenhagen, say the finding could help to explain why autism is more common in boys than in girls.

However, they say it cannot be used as a way of screening for the condition.

The team, led by Professor Simon Baron-Cohen and Dr Michael Lombardo in Cambridge and Professor Bent Nørgaard-Pedersen in Denmark, used 19,500 amniotic fluid samples stored in a Danish biobank from individuals born between 1993 and 1999.

Amniotic fluid surrounds the baby in the womb during pregnancy and is collected when some women choose to have an amniocentesis tests at 15 to 16 weeks of pregnancy.

This coincides with a critical period for early brain development and sexual differentiation, and therefore allows scientists access into this important window in foetal development.

The researchers identified amniotic fluid samples from 128 boys later diagnosed with an autism spectrum condition and matched these up with information from a central register of all psychiatric diagnoses in Denmark.

They found that levels of all steroid hormones were highly associated with each other and most importantly, that the autism group on average had higher levels of all steroid hormones, compared to a typically developing male comparison group.

Professor Baron-Cohen said: ‘This is one of the earliest non-genetic biomarkers that has been identified in children who go on to develop autism.

‘We previously knew that elevated prenatal testosterone is associated with slower social and language development, better attention to detail, and more autistic traits.

‘Now, for the first time, we have also shown that these steroid hormones are elevated in children clinically diagnosed with autism.

‘Because some of these hormones are produced in much higher quantities in males than in females, this may help us explain why autism is more common in males.’

Children who develop autism were subjected to high levels of testosterone, progesterone and cortisol. Levels of some of these hormones are higher in boys which could explain why autism is more common in boys

He added: ‘These new results are particularly striking because they are found across all the subgroups on the autism spectrum, for the first time uniting those with Asperger Syndrome, classic autism, or Pervasive Developmental Disorder Not-Otherwise-Specified. We now want to test if the same finding is found in females with autism.’

Dr Michael Lombardo said: ‘This result potentially has very important implications about the early biological mechanisms that alter brain development in autism and also pinpoints an important window in foetal development when such mechanisms exert their effects.’

Steroid hormones are particularly important because they exert influence on the process of how instructions in the genetic code are translated into building proteins.

The researchers believe that altering this process during periods when the building blocks for the brain are being laid down may be particularly important in explaining why autism develops.

Professor Baron-Cohen said: ‘These results should not be taken as a reason to jump to steroid hormone blockers as a treatment as this could have unwanted side effects and may have little to no effect in changing the potentially permanent effects that foetal steroid hormones exert during the early foundational stages of brain development.’

  • Fake dinosaur pranks park pedestrians

  • Baby’s first LOL puts happy dad in stitches

  • The release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in Taliban prisoner swap

  • ‘If I had a rock I would throw it at you!’ Judge to attorney

  • Agonising moment $10 million yacht capsizes as it is…

  • Leaked footage of Obama pumping iron in a private gym

  • Urban explorers terrified when they meet creepy Owlman

  • Obama defends his decision to make prisoner swap

  • Brazilian man undergoes extensive surgery to look Korean

  • Incredible escape, buffalo escapes lions after exhausting…

  • Five Taliban Guantanamo prisoners arrive in Qatar

  • Hilarious moment wedding party falls into lake

  • Revealed: Bowe Bergdahl left letter telling comrades at…

  • Revealed: Father of girl, 12, who stabbed ‘school friend 19…

  • Two 12-year-olds obsessed with online ghost stories ‘lured…

  • OJ SIMPSON EXCLUSIVE – False names, hounded out of jobs,…

  • Could Obama be impeached over prisoner swap which brought…

  • EXCLUSIVE: V. Stiviano reveals the injury she claims she…

  • The trade that turned toxic for Obama: Taliban twist the…

  • Utah high school teacher, 34, accused of having sex with…

  • Who sneaked a camera into Obama’s hotel gym? Security…

  • EXCLUSIVE: Jackie Kennedy wanted to divorce her philandering…

  • EXCLUSIVE: ‘She couldn’t tell the difference between dreams…

  • Married gym teacher, 39, ‘repeatedly had sex with student,…

Comments (10)

what you think

The comments below have not been moderated.

yyz,

Vail, United States,

29 minutes ago

So are these women’s pituitary gland producing to many hormones because of a pituitary tumor?

Curlylocks,

Northern Virginia, United States,

42 minutes ago

The hormone theory gibes with studies that show obesity increases the risk of autism, since obesity also affects hormone levels. Or perhaps hormone levels cause obesity. It’s hard to know with all the junk they’re putting in our food.

TreasureChest,

Sunny California, United States,

46 minutes ago

Interesting….Makes sense to me.

LetMeSpeak,

Private, United Kingdom,

1 hour ago

Nonsense. It’s the untested combination of all the vaccines parents don’t look into before injecting into their kids. Autism is higher in boys because they have a thinner blood brain barrier and are more affected by the bad effects of the vaccine. So glad I stopped my kid before he’d taken them all.

Mimi66,

Chicago,

1 hour ago

You can believe that- but its probably more likely GMO and BPA. Do some real research- not what you read on google.

Dave,

Gosport, United Kingdom,

41 minutes ago

What a bunch of cr@p – there is no evidence for any of this nonsense. Let’s just hope that, despite your selfishness, your kid manages to avoid the known side effects of some of the childhood diseases that you could have protected him from by getting him vaccinated which, for measles, includes blindness, brain damage and death.

Paul,

lansdale, United States,

1 hour ago

so who gets to tell Jenny McCarthy is wasn’t innoculation but HER body that caused her son’s problems?

SwimMom,

America USA,

10 minutes ago

I thought she cured him

Paul on the Fylde,

The Fylde, United Kingdom,

2 hours ago

There seems to be an awful lot of conditions which didn’t exist years ago. Drug manufacturers are to blame.

Dddd,

Nunoyurbiz-upon-the-dale, United Kingdom,

40 minutes ago

Autism is not a new condition. The first case studied by European doctors was in the year 1800. It obvously existed before, but this was the first time someone decided to study it medically.

The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

Find out now