Blood of autistic children different from normal kids'

I have to wonder if the immune system differences have something to do with vaccines lowering the immune system.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/2700.html

Blood of autistic children different from normal kids': study
Posted on : Fri, 06 May 2005 12:08:00 GMT | Author : Anne Roberts
News Category : Health

The immune systems of autistic children works differently from normal children, scientists from the University of California at Davis have found. Researchers found abnormalities and increased levels of certain proteins in the blood of autistic children. The findings of the study were presented at the International Meeting for Autism Research held in Boston.

David Amaral, along with his team from University of California-Davis School of Medicine, studied blood samples from 35 normal children and 70 autistic children falling between the ages of four to six years. The samples were examined for immune cells and around 4000 proteins and other metabolites.

Researchers found that in autistic children, the level of antibody-producing B-cells was up 20 per cent and that of immune cells by 40 per cent as compared to normal children. Also, around 120 blood proteins were abnormally modified in the blood of the autistic children.

“There are enough differences in the blood that it is a good strategy for finding a diagnostic marker,” Amaral said, adding that the levels of immune cell concentrations, proteins, and metabolites had ‘very striking differences’ as compared to normal children.

“Not being able to detect autism until a child is close to three-years-old eliminates a valuable window of treatment opportunity during the first few years of life when the brain is undergoing tremendous development. From these results we think it is highly likely that there are differences we can detect in blood samples that will be predictive of the disorder, though we are still some years away from having an actual diagnostic blood test for autism,” he said.

According to Dr Helen Tager Flusberg, who chaired the Boston meeting, the results ‘suggest the possibility for future diagnostic tests for autism at birth. “We are now learning that the immune system, genetics and environmental triggers factor into this very complex disorder,” she said.
Using this study as the foundation, it might be possible to identify the risk of autism in the first month of life. “We can get children into effective treatment much earlier than is now possible,” she said.

One in every 166 children in the United States is affected by autism, a disorder that impairs cognitive, language and social skills. Tweet