背景:自闭症谱系障碍(ASD)的神经生物学基础是多种多样的,并且可能是多因素的。一种可能的机制是增加的氧化应激导致改变的神经发育和脑功能。然而,这一假设主要在验尸研究中得到检验.到目前为止,在自闭症患者的体内研究中,有报道称额叶谷胱甘肽(GSH)水平没有差异,枕骨,和皮质下区域。然而,这些研究受到GSH定量技术上具有挑战性的限制,大脑主要的抗氧化分子.本研究旨在通过使用GSH定制的光谱序列和优化的定量方法来克服先前研究的局限性,以提供自闭症成人GSH水平的清晰度。
方法:我们采用波谱编辑质子磁共振波谱(1H-MRS)结合线性组合模型拟合对孤独症和非孤独症成人(男性和女性)背侧前额叶皮质(DMPFC)和枕内侧皮质(mOCC)中的GSH进行量化。我们比较了组间的GSH水平。我们还检查了GSH和当前自闭症症状之间的相关性,使用自闭症商数(AQ)测量。
结果:数据来自31名成年自闭症患者(24名男性,7名女性)和40名非自闭症参与者(21名男性,16名女性);迄今为止最大的样本。GSH水平在任一地区的组间没有差异。未观察到与AQ的相关性。
结论:使用1H-MRS测量的GSH水平在自闭症成人的DMPFC和mOCC区域没有改变,这表明这些皮质区域的氧化应激不是ASD的明显神经生物学特征。
BACKGROUND: The neurobiological underpinnings of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are diverse and likely multifactorial. One possible mechanism is increased oxidative stress leading to altered neurodevelopment and brain function. However, this hypothesis has mostly been tested in post-mortem studies. So far, available in vivo studies in autistic individuals have reported no differences in glutathione (GSH) levels in frontal, occipital, and subcortical regions. However, these studies were limited by the technically challenging quantification of GSH, the main brain antioxidant molecule. This study aimed to overcome previous studies\' limitations by using a GSH-tailored spectroscopy sequence and optimised quantification methodology to provide clarity on GSH levels in autistic adults.
METHODS: We used spectral editing proton-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) combined with linear combination model fitting to quantify GSH in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC) and medial occipital cortex (mOCC) of autistic and non-autistic adults (male and female). We compared GSH levels between groups. We also examined correlations between GSH and current autism symptoms, measured using the Autism Quotient (AQ).
RESULTS: Data were available from 31 adult autistic participants (24 males, 7 females) and 40 non-autistic participants (21 males, 16 females); the largest sample to date. The GSH levels did not differ between groups in either region. No correlations with AQ were observed.
CONCLUSIONS: GSH levels as measured using 1H-MRS are unaltered in the DMPFC and mOCC regions of autistic adults, suggesting that oxidative stress in these cortical regions is not a marked neurobiological signature of ASD.