Autistic traits, autism spectrum conditions, and foetal testosterone

自闭症谱系疾病(ASC)对男性的影响远远大于女性。这可能反映了荷尔蒙、遗传、诊断实践或所有这三个因素的影响。这项计划拨款通过跟踪母亲做过羊膜穿刺术的孩子，并测量羊水中的睾酮水平来测试第一个测试。它在一个小型的英国生物库(与500名儿童有关)和大得多的丹麦生物库(与9万名儿童有关)中进行测试，看看后来表现出更多自闭症特征的儿童，或者后来被诊断为自闭症或阿斯伯格综合症的儿童，胎儿睾酮水平是否升高。此外，由于羊膜穿刺术样本可能不能代表一般人群，我们测试胎儿睾酮是否与出生时采集的血点和3个月时唾液中测量的新生儿睾酮水平相关，因为最终这种测试侵入性更小，风险更小，并且可以从每个婴儿身上获取。我们还测量了后来被诊断为自闭症的儿童的新生儿睾丸激素水平。最后，我们测试了一种罕见的医学条件(AIS)，在这种情况下，男性不能与胎儿睾丸素结合，以测试这样的男性应该比典型男性具有更少的自闭症特征的预测。计划中的一系列研究将有助于回答胎儿睾丸素是否会增加自闭症特征和自闭症风险的问题。

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) affect males far more often than females. This is likely to reflect the influence of hormones, genetics, diagnostic practice, or all three factors. This program grant tests the first of these by following up children whose mothers had amniocentesis, and where the amniotic fluid tesosterone levels are measured. It tests in both a small British Biobank (linked to 500 children) and in the much larger Danish Biobank (linked to 90,000 children) if foetal testosterone levels are elevated in children who later show more autistic traits, or who go on to receive a diagnosis of autism or Asperger Syndrome. In addition, since amniocentesis samples may not be representative of the general population, we test if foetal testosterone is correlated with newborn testosterone levels measured in blood spots collected at birth, and in saliva at 3 months, since ultimately such tests are less invasive, have less risk, and could be taken from every baby. We also measure neonatal testosterone levels in children later diagnosed with autism. Finally, we test a rare medical condition (AIS) in which males cannot bind foetal testosterone, to test the prediction that such males should have fewer autistic traits than typical males. The range of planned studies will help answer the question as to whether foetal testosterone increases the risk of autistic traits and ASC.