Increased Hmgb1 Associated With Low Zinc and Symptom Severity in Children with Autism

Autistic children often have a high prevalence of immune-related pathologies, such as allergies and autoimmunediseases, and there is compelling evidence that immune dysfunction is related to the etiology of autism. High-mobilitygroup box proteins (HMGB1) constitute a family of non-histone and ubiquitous molecules with a pro-inflammatoryfunction. In this study, we measured HMGB1 levels in autistic individuals and compared these levels to plasma zincconcentration. We found that in individuals with autism increased levels of HMGB1 was associated with low zinclevels, as well as increased selected symptom severity. These results suggest that there is a relationship between Zincand HMGB1levels in autistic individuals, and that low zinc levels may be exasperating inflammation in these patients.