Quantcast
Channel: testosterone – Intelligent Living
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

High Levels Of Estrogen In The Womb Linked To Autism

0
0

Twenty years ago, a theory was proposed which stated that the prenatal sex hormones are linked to autism and now scientists have found a connection between autism and high levels of estrogen in the womb suggesting that the high levels are affecting brain growth in fetuses. It is not yet clear whether these elevated hormone levels come from the mother, baby or placenta. The findings have been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Autism is not a disease but rather a lifelong, developmental disability that affects how a person communicates and relates to other people and how they experience the world around them. It is a spectrum disorder and due to the nature of this disorder, different people with autism have different experiences.

Previous studies have found a link between testosterone and autism but this is the first one to find the link between estrogen and autism. What’s more, the scientists say that estrogen has an even stronger link. The discovery is particularly exciting because the role of estrogen in autism has hardly been studied.

The study involved scientists from the University of Cambridge and the State Serum Institute in Denmark testing the amniotic fluid from 98 people sampled from the Danish Biobank which has amniotic samples from more than 100,000 pregnancies. The estrogen was significantly higher in fetuses who later developed autism, compared to 177 fetuses who did not.

Dr. Arieh Cohen, the biochemist on the team, based at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, said:

This is a terrific example of how a unique biobank set up 40 years ago is still reaping scientific fruit today in unimagined ways, through international collaboration.

Lead researcher Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge:

This new finding supports the idea that increased prenatal sex steroid hormones are one of the potential causes for the condition. Genetics is well established as another, and these hormones likely interact with genetic factors to affect the developing fetal brain.

Study finds link between high levels of estrogen in womb and autism

This study is a follow-up from a 2015 research they conducted to measure the levels of four prenatal steroid hormones in the amniotic fluid in the womb. Two of the four hormones known as androgens were found to be higher in male fetuses who went on to develop autism. These androgens are produced in higher quantities in male than female fetuses which could explain why autism is seen more often in boys.

Dr. James Findon from King’s College London, who was not involved in the research, said:

This a scientifically robust study, but we need to see replication in an independent cohort to really trust the results. There is hardly any work on prenatal estrogen in autism, so while this is a good first step, we have to be cautious and not get carried away. It is unknown exactly how prenatal sex steroid hormones may impact neurodevelopment. But this study lays the groundwork for future studies to investigate this relationship further.

However, Professor Baron-Cohen stressed that the findings cannot and should not be used to screen for autism. “We are interested in understanding autism, not preventing it,” he said.

Dr. Alexa Pohl, part of the Cambridge team, said:

This finding is exciting because the role of estrogens in autism has hardly been studied, and we hope that we can learn more about how they contribute to fetal brain development in further experiments. We still need to see whether the same result holds true in autistic females.

Alex Tsompanidis, a Ph.D. student in Cambridge who worked on the study, added:

Our next step should be to study all these possible sources and how they interact during pregnancy.

The post High Levels Of Estrogen In The Womb Linked To Autism appeared first on Intelligent Living.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 3

Latest Images

Trending Articles



Latest Images