Study of plasma amino acid levels in children with autism : an Egyptian sample

Abstract EN

Background : The aetiology of autism is unclear and autistic symptoms had been attributed to an abnormal functional imbalance in neurotransmitter amines such as dopamine, noradrenaline and serotonin.

Objective : To study plasma essential and non-essential amino acid levels, protein electrophoresis, serum ammonia, and urea in autistic children in comparison with controls.

Methods : Twenty autistic children were compared to twenty healthy age and sex matched normal children serving as control, where serum amino acids, urea, ammonia and protein electrophoresis were estimated.

Results : As regards essential amino acid levels, autistic children had significant lower plasma levels of leucine, isoleucine, phenylalanine, methionine and cystine than controls (P < 0.05),while there was no statistical difference in the level of tryptophan, valine, threonine, arginine, lysine and histidine (P > 0.05).

In non-essential amino acid levels, phosphoserine was significantly raised in autistic children than in controls (P < 0.05).

Autistic children had lower level of hydroxyproline, serine and tyrosine than controls (P < 0.05).

On the other hand there was no significant difference in levels of taurin, asparagine, alanine, citrulline, GABA, glycine, glutamic acid, and ornithine (P > 0.05).

There was no significant difference between cases and controls as regards the levels of urea, ammonia, total proteins, albumin and globulins (alpha 1, alpha 2, beta and gamma) (P > 0.05).