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Adiponectin blood levels and autism spectrum disorders: a systematic review
Mohsan Ali1, Maha Kamran2, Muhammad Talha3
1King Edward Medical University, Lahore, Pakistan. mohsanali@kemu.edu.pk.
Insights
Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often show lower levels of adiponectin, an anti-inflammatory hormone. This suggests a potential link between adiponectin and ASD severity, warranting further investigation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Immunology
- Endocrinology
Background:
- Autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) involve social and communication deficits.
- Investigating pathophysiological mechanisms, including immune dysfunction, may aid early ASD diagnosis and treatment.
- Adiponectin, an anti-inflammatory adipokine, and other adipokines may influence ASD risk.
Approach:
- Systematic literature search of PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane databases up to September 2022.
- Included English-language studies focusing on adiponectin levels in children with and without ASDs.
- Extracted and analyzed data on mean differences in adiponectin levels.
Key Points:
- Six studies were reviewed, with four indicating an inverse correlation between ASD and adiponectin levels.
- Two of these studies found lower adiponectin levels associated with ASD symptom severity.
- One study reported insignificant results, highlighting variability in findings.
Conclusions:
- The majority of reviewed studies suggest lower adiponectin levels in children diagnosed with ASDs.
- Lower adiponectin levels may also correlate with increased severity of autistic symptoms.
Objective:
To review the relationship between adiponectin levels and autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) in children.
Background:
ASDs are associated with pervasive social interaction and communication abnormalities. Researchers have studied various pathophysiological mechanisms underlying ASDs to identify predictors for an early diagnosis to optimize treatment outcomes. Immune dysfunction, perhaps mediated by a decrease in anti-inflammatory adipokine, adiponectin, along with changes in other adipokines, may play a central role in increasing the risk for ASDs. However, other factors, such as low maternal vitamin D levels, atherosclerosis, diabetes, obesity, cardio-metabolic diseases, preterm delivery, and oxytocin gene polymorphism may also contribute to increased risk for ASDs.
Methods:
Searches on the database; PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane using keywords; adiponectin, adipokines, ASD, autism, autistic disorder, included English-language studies published till September 2022. Data were extracted on mean differences between adiponectin levels in children with and without ASDs.
Results:
The search yielded six studies providing data on adiponectin levels in young patients with ASDs. As can be seen from Table 1, four of the six studies were positive for an inverse correlation between ASD and adiponectin levels. In addition, two of the four positive and one negative studies found low adiponectin levels associated with and the severity of autistic symptoms. However, results from one reviewed study were insignificant.
Conclusion:
Most studies reviewed yielded lower adiponectin levels in children with ASDs as well as the severity of autistic symptoms.
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