Oxidative stress affects the pathogenesis of many psychiatric disorders because the brain is more susceptible to oxidative damage than other organs. Children with autism spectrum disorders have a reduced level of antioxidants and therefore reduced ability to fight oxidative stress. These children are characterized by a complex behavioural phenotype and a deficiency in social and cognitive functions.
Our aim was to evaluate the concentrations of 8-hydroxydegvanosine and 8-isoprostane both known as markers of oxidative stress. 8-hydroxydegvanosine is an indicator of DNA damage while 8-isoprosthene shows damage to lipids. We tested a group of children with autism spectrum disorders and a control group of children. Concentrations of both markers were determined by a competitive enzyme immunoassay and the results were statistically evaluated.
Children with autism spectrum disorders were composed of two subgroups, namely children with autism and children with Asperger syndrome. We have examined whether there is a significant difference between the individual groups in terms of concentrations of 8-hydroxydegvanosine and 8-isoprostane.
We looked at the concentrations of 8-isoprostane in individual groups. The results showed that children with autism spectrum disorders have significantly higher concentrations than the control group. A comparison of children with autism and Asperger syndrome showed a significantly higher production of 8-isoprostane in children with the Asperger syndrome. However, in the group of children with autism and control groups, we were unable to prove differences in concentrations of 8-isoprostane. We were also interested in the concentration of 8-hydroxydegvanosine in individual groups. The results showed that there is no significant difference between the group of children with autism spectrum disorders and the control group. We also failed to demonstrate differences between autism and Asperger syndrome and when comparing both of them with the control group. We were interested in the difference in the concentration of markers by gender and we found that there is no correlation. Children with autism spectrum disorders have a mild, moderate or severe form of deficits. When comparing individual forms, we found that the mild form has significantly higher production of 8-hydroxydegvanosine and 8-isoprostane than the other two. However, we didn’t prove differences between moderate and severe deficits.
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