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. 2018 Mar 14:6:12.
doi: 10.1186/s40364-018-0125-z. eCollection 2018.

Erythrocyte fatty acid profiles in children are not predictive of autism spectrum disorder status: a case control study

Daniel P Howsmon  1   2   3 , James B Adams  4 , Uwe Kruger  5 , Elizabeth Geis  4 , Eva Gehn  4 , Juergen Hahn  1   2   5
Affiliations

Erythrocyte fatty acid profiles in children are not predictive of autism spectrum disorder status: a case control study

Daniel P Howsmon et al. Biomark Res. .

Abstract

Biomarkers promise biomolecular explanations as well as reliable diagnostics, stratification, and treatment strategies that have the potential to help mitigate the effects of disorders. While no reliable biomarker has yet been found for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), fatty acids have been investigated as potential biomarkers because of their association with brain development and neural functions. However, the ability of fatty acids to classify individuals with ASD from age/gender-matched neurotypical (NEU) peers has largely been ignored in favor of investigating population-level differences. Contrary to existing work, this classification task between ASD and NEU cohorts is the main focus of this work. The data presented herein suggest that fatty acids do not allow for classification at the individual level.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Diagnostic biomarkers; Fatty acids; Multivariate statistical analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The participants reported in this study were part of a 12-month nutrition/dietary treatment study known as the ASU Nutrition/Diet Treatment Study. All measurements reported in this paper are taken at baseline, prior to the initiation of treatment. Participants and/or their parents/guardians provided written informed consent and written assent was performed when applicable. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Arizona State University.Not applicable.JBA is on the Scientific Advisory Board for the Autism Research Institute (ARI). All other authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Distributions of fatty acid measurements for ASD and NEU cohorts. Fatty acids investigated are (a) AA, (b) DGLA, (c), DHA, (d) EPA, (e) elaidic acid, (f) linoleic acid, (g) oleic acid, (h) palmitelaidic acid, (i) palmitic acid, (j) palmitoleic acid, (k) stearic acid, (l) DHA/AA, (m) EPA/AA, (n) n-3/n-6, and (o) Total PUFA. All results are normalized by the concentration of total fatty acids in the sample
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Probability distributions of fitted FDA scores. All fatty acid measurements were included
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Comparison of distributions of AA. Comparison of (a, b) the results presented in Brigandi et al. [14], (c, d) the results presented in Yui et al. [24], and (e) the results presented in this work
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Comparison of distributions of DHA. Comparison of (a, b) the results presented in Brigandi et al. [14] and (c) the results presented in this work
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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