Maternal infection during pregnancy and likelihood of autism and intellectual disability in children in Sweden: a negative control and sibling comparison cohort study.

Background: Maternal infections during pregnancy are associated with intellectual disability and autism in exposed children. Whether these associations are causal, and therefore should be targets of preventive strategies, remains unknown. We aimed to investigate these associations, to determine whether there is a causal role of maternal infection during pregnancy for children's risk of autism and intellectual disability, by accounting for unmeasured familial factors.

Maternal Levels of Cytokines in Early Pregnancy and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorders in Offspring.

Previous studies indicate a role of immune disturbances during early development in the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Any potential disturbances during fetal development are best addressed by prospective evaluation of maternal markers of inflammation. Previous studies have investigated maternal cytokines, a group of powerful effectors of the immune system, with inconsistent results.

Maternal levels of acute phase proteins in early pregnancy and risk of autism spectrum disorders in offspring.

Previous research supports a contribution of early-life immune disturbances in the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Biomarker studies of the maternal innate (non-adaptive) immune status related to ASD risk have focused on one of the acute phase proteins (APP), C-reactive protein (CRP), with conflicting results. We evaluated levels of eight different APP in first-trimester maternal serum samples, from 318 mothers to ASD cases and 429 mothers to ASD-unaffected controls, nested within the register-based Stockholm Youth Cohort.

Childhood infections and autism spectrum disorders and/or intellectual disability: a register-based cohort study.

Objective: To explore the associations between childhood infections and subsequent diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability (ID), and their co-occurrence.

Methods: The association between specialized care for any infection, defined by ICD-codes, and later ASD or ID was investigated in a register-based cohort of 556,732 individuals born 1987-2010, resident in Stockholm County, followed from birth to their 18th birthday or December 31, 2016. We considered as potential confounders children's characteristics, family socioeconomic factors, obstetric complications, and parental histories of treatment for infection and psychiatric disorders in survival analyses with extended Cox regression models.

Neonatal Levels of Acute Phase Proteins and Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Background: Immune signaling pathways influence neurodevelopment and are hypothesized to contribute to the etiology of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We aimed to assess risk of ASD in relation to levels of neonatal acute phase proteins (APPs), key components of innate immune function, measured in neonatal dried blood spots.

Methods: We included 924 ASD cases, 1092 unaffected population-based controls, and 203 unaffected siblings of ASD cases in this case-control study nested within the register-based Stockholm Youth Cohort.