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Chinese children with autism: A multiple chemical elements profile in erythrocytes
Author(s) -
Wu Jing,
Liu DuoJian,
Shou XiaoJing,
Zhang JiShui,
Meng FanChao,
Liu YaQiong,
Han SongPing,
Zhang Rong,
Jia JinZhu,
Wang JingYu,
Han JiSheng
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
autism research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.656
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1939-3806
pISSN - 1939-3792
DOI - 10.1002/aur.1949
Subject(s) - autism , childhood autism rating scale , psychology , developmental psychology , autism spectrum disorder , affect (linguistics) , audiology , clinical psychology , medicine , communication
Several lines of evidence suggested that abnormal levels of certain chemical elements may contribute to the development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The present work aimed to investigate the multiple chemical elements profile in the erythrocytes of autistic versus typically developing children (TDC) of China. Analyses were carried out to explore the possible association between levels of elements and the risk as well as the severity of ASD. Erythrocyte levels of 11 elements (32%) among 34 detected elements in autistic group were significantly different from those in the TDC group. To our knowledge, this is the first study which compared the levels of rare earth elements in erythrocytes between children with or without ASD. Five elements including Pb, Na, Ca, Sb, and La are associated with the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) total score. Also, a series of tendencies were found in this research which was believed to affect auditory response, taste, smell, and touch, as well as fear or nervousness. It can be concluded that Chinese autistic children suffer from multi‐chemical element imbalances which involves a complex combination of genetic and environmental factors. The results showed a significant correlation between abnormal levels of several chemical elements and the severity of the autistic syndrome. Lay Summary It is suggested that abnormal levels of some chemical elements may contribute to the development of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In this work, the impact of element imbalances on the risk and severity of ASD was investigated, focusing on the analysis of abnormal levels of the multi‐chemical elements profile in erythrocytes compared with typically developing children. Furthermore, the results showed a significant correlation between abnormal levels of several chemical elements and the severity of the autistic syndrome. Autism Res 2018, 11: 834–845 . © 2018 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.