Background
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD)
GSH and etiology of ASD
The antioxidant glutathione (GSH)
Magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) as a tool for assessing GSH levels in vivo
Methodological MRS aspects
Previous MRS findings in the prefrontal cortex
Rationale of our study
Methods
Patient assessment
Healthy control group
MRS procedure
Study sample
Autism spectrum disorder | Controls | |
---|---|---|
Included subjects | 25 | 24 |
Technical reasons for further exclusion | 1 × bad spectral quality | 1 × bad spectral quality |
Post hoc information about psychometric exclusion criteria | 0 | 1× BDI-score >18, 1× WURS-k-score >30, 2× EQ-score ≤30, 1× IQ <90 |
Number of spectra for statistical analysis | 24 | 18 |
Statistical analyses
Results
Demographic and psychometric data
ASD (n = 24) | Controls (n = 18) | Statistics | |
---|---|---|---|
Age | 40.54 ± 10.279 | 37.17 ± 10.983 |
p = 0.313 |
Intelligence quotient | 114.29 ± 15.213 | 113.00 ± 13.920 |
p = 0.779 |
Gender | 12 m:12 f | 8 m:10 f |
p = 0.721 |
Nicotine | 2.292 ± 5.894 | 2.222 ± 6.691 |
p = 0.972 |
Autism-spectrum quotient | 39.08 ± 6.386 | 12.94 ± 5.504 |
p < 0.001 |
Empathy quotient | 17.38 ± 9.523 | 47.94 ± 9.710 |
p < 0.001 |
Wender Utah Rating Scale | 33.75 ± 16.690 | 8.72 ± 7.954 |
p < 0.001 |
Beck Depression Inventory score | 17.25 ± 12.365 | 3.22 ± 4.236 |
p < 0.001 |
Level of education | Low school degree, 1 (4.2%) | Low school degree, 0 (0%) | |
Medium school degree, 3 (12.5%) | Medium school degree, 3 (16.7%) | ||
High school degree, 9 (37.5%) | High school degree, 6 (33.3%) | ||
University degree, 9 (37.5%) | University degree, 9 (50%) | ||
Other, 2 (8.3%) | Other, 0 (0%) | ||
Occupational situation | Full-time employed, 13 (54.2%) | Full-time employed, 7 (38.9%) | |
Part-time employment, 4 (16.7%) | Part-time employment, 4 (22.2%) | ||
In vocational training/studying, 1 (4.2%) | In vocational training/studying, 7 (38.9%) | ||
Pension, 1 (4.2%) | Pension, 0 (0%) | ||
Unemployed, 4 (16.7%) | Unemployed, 0 (0%) | ||
Other, 1 (4.2%) | Other, 0 (0%) | ||
Psychiatric medication (in the last 3 months) | No, 11 | No, 18 | |
AD, 6 | AD, 0 | ||
NL, 1 | NL, 0 | ||
AD + NL, 5 | AD + NL, 0 | ||
AD + MPH, 1 | AD + MPH, 0 |
MRS results
Dorsal anterior cingulate cortex | MANCOVA without covariates (Wilks’ lambda test p = 0.429) | MANCOVA with covariatesa (Wilks’ lambda test p = 0.564) | Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex | MANCOVA without covariates (Wilks’ lambda test p = 0.288) | MANCOVA with covariatesa (Wilks’ lambda test p = 0.262) | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
ASD (n = 24) | Controls (n = 18) | ASD (n = 24) | Controls (n = 18) | |||||
GSH | 1.7939 | 1.9810 |
p = 0.076 |
p = 0.147 | 1.6017 | 1.6247 |
p = 0.706 |
p = 0.655 |
0.37068 | 0.26364 | 0.18921 | 0.19985 | |||||
Cre | 7.4948 | 7.9657 |
p = 0.048 |
p = 0.082 | 6.9109 | 6.6330 |
p = 0.013 |
p = 0.020 |
0.91646 | 0.39453 | 0.33509 | 0.35355 | |||||
t-Cho | 1.8900 | 1.9926 |
p = 0.213 |
p = 0.200 | 1.8507 | 1.8289 |
p = 0.757 |
p = 0.984 |
0.27320 | 0.24132 | 0.18029 | 0.27268 | |||||
Glx | 11.7396 | 12.5834 |
p = 0.142 |
p = 0.272 | 9.4585 | 9.2360 |
p = 0.396 |
p = 0.094 |
2.14178 | 1.21151 | 0.97482 | 0.58407 | |||||
NAA | 8.1840 | 8.8939 |
p = 0.168 |
p = 0.319 | 8.8931 | 8.7972 |
p = 0.661 |
p = 0.423 |
1.82291 | 1.29632 | 0.75962 | 0.59745 | |||||
mI | 5.8211 | 6.3095 |
p = 0.018 |
p = 0.036 | 5.0549 | 4.9064 |
p = 0.344 |
p = 0.456 |
0.73532 | 0.46517 | 0.50464 | 0.48836 |
GSH
Other neurometabolites
Analysis of dimensional associations
GSH
Other neurometabolites
AQ | EQ | WURS-k | BDI | IQ | Age | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Anterior cingulate cortex (n = 24) | ||||||
GSH | 0.077 | −0.193 | 0.287 | −0.006 |
−0.549
|
−0.567
|
0.721 | 0.366 | 0.174 | 0.978 |
0.005
|
0.004
| |
Cre | 0.183 | −0.373 | −0.103 | −0.082 | −0.329 | −0.310 |
0.393 | 0.072 | 0.632 | 0.702 | 0.117 | 0.140 | |
t-Cho | 0.286 | −0.268 | 0.063 | 0.010 | −0.106 | −0.195 |
0.175 | 0.206 | 0.770 | 0.964 | 0.622 | 0.360 | |
Glx | 0.301 | −0.394 | 0.104 | −0.019 | −0.370 | −0.346 |
0.152 | 0.057 | 0.628 | 0.931 | 0.075 | 0.098 | |
NAA | 0.363 | −0.399 | −0.007 | −0.102 | −0.297 | −0.310 |
0.081 | 0.053 | 0.974 | 0.634 | 0.159 | 0.140 | |
mI | −0.011 | −0.040 | −0.013 | −0.057 | −0.289 | −0.339 |
0.959 | 0.853 | 0.952 | 0.793 | 0.171 | 0.105 | |
Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (n = 24) | ||||||
GSH | −0.014 | −0.058 | 0.126 | 0.154 | −0.020 | −0.166 |
0.950 | 0.790 | 0.556 | 0.471 | 0.927 | 0.438 | |
Cre | 0.042 | −0.176 | −0.287 | −0.283 | −0.136 | −0.115 |
0.847 | 0.410 | 0.173 | 0.180 | 0.527 | 0.593 | |
t-Cho | −0.226 | 0.443 | −0.010 | −0.027 | 0.434 | 0.097 |
0.289 | 0.030 | 0.964 | 0.901 | 0.034 | 0.653 | |
Glx | −0.079 | 0.162 | 0.312 | −0.179 | −0.454 |
−0.730
|
0.713 | 0.450 | 0.138 | 0.402 | 0.026 |
0.000
| |
NAA | −0.038 | −0.297 | 0.183 | 0.033 | −0.341 | −0.391 |
0.861 | 0.159 | 0.391 | 0.880 | 0.103 | 0.059 | |
mI | −0.205 | 0.310 | 0.004 | −0.349 | 0.005 | 0.035 |
0.336 | 0.141 | 0.987 | 0.094 | 0.982 | 0.870 |