Blood lipid peroxidation, antioxidant enzyme activities and hemorheological changes in autistic children.

OBJECTIVES: Early infantile autism is a severe form of childhood psychiatric disease with characteristic symptoms. Hyperserotoninaemia in 43.5%, lactic acidosis 43% and hyperpyruvataemia in 30% were biochemically demonstrated in autistic children. Our earlier results led to the postulation that a dissequilibrium in the blood redox is involved in infantile autism; the oxidative loading and the antioxidant defending enzyme system were investigated together with the hemorheological parameters in infantile autism.
METHODS: Malonyl-dialdehyde (MDA) endproduct of lipid peroxidation and activities of the antioxidant enzymes: superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (C-ase), glutathione peroxidase (GP-ase) and reduced glutathione (GSH) were biochemically determined from plasma and red blood cells. PATIENTS: The antioxidant specificities were investigated in plasma and red blood cell haemolysate from 25 infantile autistic children.
RESULTS: Significantly increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) (2.89 vs. 1.32 U/mg protein, p < 0.01) and decreased glutathione peroxidase (0.620 vs. 0.910 U/mg protein, p < 0.01) levels as well as catalase (0.463 vs. 4.948 BU/mg protein, p < 0.001) activities were detected; while the plasma and erythrocyte lipid peroxidation and the reduced glutathione (GSH) levels did not change. The results of the investigated prooxidant and the antioxidant status provide evidence that there exists an oxidative stress in children with infantile autism. While investigating the hemorheological parameters of 25 infantile autistic patients, some characteristic pathological parameters were detected: the initial filtration rate (Fi) (0.72 vs. 0.75 p < 0.01) and the clogging rate (CR) (1.926 vs. 2.912, p < 0.01) values of red blood cells (RBC) decreased while the mean transit time (Tc) (8.93 vs. 7.39, p < 0.001) increased suggesting reduced RBC deformability.