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. 2007;69(4):731-40.
doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2007.02.019. Epub 2007 Apr 6.

Autism, asthma, inflammation, and the hygiene hypothesis

Kevin G Becker  1
Affiliations

Autism, asthma, inflammation, and the hygiene hypothesis

Kevin G Becker. Med Hypotheses. 2007.

Abstract

Inflammation and the genes, molecules, and biological pathways that lead to inflammatory processes influence many important and disparate biological processes and disease states that are quite often not generally considered classical inflammatory or autoimmune disorders. These include development, reproduction, aging, tumor development and tumor rejection, cardiovascular pathologies, metabolic disorders, as well as neurological and psychiatric disorders. This paper compares parallel aspects of autism and inflammatory disorders with an emphasis on asthma. These comparisons include epidemiological, morphometric, molecular, and genetic aspects of both disease types, contributing to a hypothesis of autism in the context of the immune based hygiene hypothesis. This hypothesis is meant to address the apparent rise in the prevalence of autism in the population.

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Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Selected clusters of linkage data from Autism, Tourette syndrome, and Autoimmune/ Inflammatory disorders
All polymorphic markers come from independent genetic linkage whole genome scans. Each marker is positioned on a common reference map based on the LDB gmaps. Chromosome band and centimorgan position are shown above and below respectively for each chromosomal region. Polymorphic markers from autoimmune and inflammatory disorders are in black. Markers from autism are in orange. Markers from Tourette syndrome are in purple. All markers are arbitrarily assigned a 10-centimorgan interval at the peak marker reported. Line weight is proportional to LOD score of p-value. References and other information for all polymorphic markers can be found here: http://www.quickbase.com/db/8jp3dz49?a=q&qid=1
Fig 1
Fig 1. Selected clusters of linkage data from Autism, Tourette syndrome, and Autoimmune/ Inflammatory disorders
All polymorphic markers come from independent genetic linkage whole genome scans. Each marker is positioned on a common reference map based on the LDB gmaps. Chromosome band and centimorgan position are shown above and below respectively for each chromosomal region. Polymorphic markers from autoimmune and inflammatory disorders are in black. Markers from autism are in orange. Markers from Tourette syndrome are in purple. All markers are arbitrarily assigned a 10-centimorgan interval at the peak marker reported. Line weight is proportional to LOD score of p-value. References and other information for all polymorphic markers can be found here: http://www.quickbase.com/db/8jp3dz49?a=q&qid=1
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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