[Adta] Fw: BOYS WITH AUTISM, RELATED DISORDERS,
HAVE HIGH LEVELS OF GROWTH HORMONES
Cynthia BERROL
cberrol at sbcglobal.net
Sun Jun 24 17:50:57 EDT 2007
Barbara,
Thanks for the latest research on etiology of Autisim.
Cynthia
--- Barbara A Busse <busse002 at mc.duke.edu> wrote:
>
> just another intersting tidbit. Have a great
> week-end!
> Barbara
> ----- Forwarded by Barbara A Busse/MCLibrary/mc/Duke
> on 06/22/2007 02:14 PM
> -----
>
>
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> H.GOV> BOYS WITH
> AUTISM, RELATED
> DISORDERS,
> HAVE HIGH LEVELS OF
> GROWTH
> HORMONES
> 06/22/2007 10:02
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> U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
> NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH
> NIH News
> National Institute of Child Health and Human
> Development (NICHD)
> <http://www.nichd.nih.gov/>
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> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Friday, June 22, 2007
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> BOYS WITH AUTISM, RELATED DISORDERS, HAVE HIGH
> LEVELS OF GROWTH HORMONES
>
> Boys with autism and autism spectrum disorder had
> higher levels of hormones
> involved with growth in comparison to boys who do
> not have autism, reported
> researchers from the National Institutes of Health,
> the Centers for Disease
> Control and Prevention, the Cincinnati Children's
> Hospital and the
> University Of Cincinnati College Of Medicine.
>
> The researchers believe that the higher hormone
> levels might explain the
> greater head circumference seen in many children
> with autism. Earlier
> studies had reported that many children with autism
> have very rapid head
> growth in early life, leading to a proportionately
> larger head
> circumference than children who do not have autism.
>
> The researchers found that, in addition to a larger
> head circumference, the
> boys with autism and autism spectrum disorder who
> took part in the current
> study were heavier than boys without these
> conditions.
>
> "The study authors have uncovered a promising new
> lead in the quest to
> understand autism," said Duane Alexander, M.D.,
> Director of the National
> Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the
> NIH institute that
> funded the study. "Future research will determine
> whether the higher
> hormone levels the researchers observed are related
> to abnormal head growth
> as well as to other features of autism."
>
> Autism is a complex developmental disorder that
> includes problems with
> social interaction and communication. The term
> autism spectrum disorder
> (ASD) refers to individuals who have a less severe
> form of autism.
>
> The study was published on line in "Clinical
> Endocrinology".
>
> The researchers compared the height, weight, head
> circumference and levels
> of growth-related hormones to growth and maturation
> in 71 boys with autism
> and with ASD to a group of 59 boys who did not have
> these conditions.
>
> The investigators found that the boys with autism
> had higher levels of two
> hormones that directly regulate growth (insulin-like
> growth factors 1 and
> 2). These growth-related hormones stimulate
> cellular growth. The
> researchers did not measure the boys' levels of
> human growth hormone, which
> for technical reasons is difficult to evaluate.
>
> The boys with autism also had higher levels of other
> hormones related to
> growth, such as insulin-like growth factor binding
> protein and growth
> hormone binding protein.
>
> In addition to greater head circumference, the boys
> with autism and those
> with autism spectrum disorders weighed more and had
> a higher body mass
> index (BMI). BMI is a ratio of a person's weight
> and height. A higher BMI
> often indicates that a person is overweight or
> obese. The boys' higher BMI
> may be related to their higher hormone levels, said
> the study's principal
> investigator, NICHD's James L. Mills, M.D., a senior
> investigator in the
> Division of Epidemiology, Statistics and Prevention
> Research's Epidemiology
> Branch. Dr. Mills and his coworkers also found that
> there was no
> difference in height between the two groups of boys.
>
> The levels of growth-related hormones were
> significantly higher in the boys
> with autism even after the researchers compensated
> for the fact that higher
> levels of these hormones would be expected in
> children with a greater BMI.
>
> "The higher growth-related hormone levels are not a
> result of the boys with
> autism simply being heavier," said Dr. Mills.
>
> While it has long been noted that many children with
> autism have a larger
> head circumference than other children, few studies
> have investigated
> whether these children are also taller and heavier,
> Dr. Mills added.
>
> Researchers analyzed medical records and blood
> samples from 71 boys
> diagnosed with autism and ASD who were patients at
> Cincinnati Children's
> Hospital Medical Center from March 2002 to February
> 2004. The researchers
> compared the information on the boys with autism and
> autism spectrum
> disorders to other boys treated for other conditions
> at the hospital and
> who do not have autism. Children with conditions
> that may have affected
> their growth -- such as being born severely
> premature, long-term illness,
> or the genetic condition Fragile X were not included
> in the study. Girls
> are much less likely to develop autism than are
> boys, and the researchers
> were unable to recruit a sufficient number of girls
> with autism to
> participate in the study.
>
> Dr. Mills explained that the bone age of the boys
> with autism -- the bone
>
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