Abstract
Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by social and language deficits, ritualistic–repetitive behaviors and disturbance in motor functions. Data of imaging, head circumference studies, and Purkinje cell analysis suggest impaired brain growth and development. Both genetic predisposition and environmental triggers have been implicated in the etiology of autism, but the underlying cause remains unknown. Recently, we have reported an increase in 3-nitrotyrosine (3-NT), a marker of oxidative stress damage to proteins in autistic cerebella. In the present study, we further explored oxidative damage in the autistic cerebellum by measuring 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OH-dG), a marker of DNA modification, in a subset of cases analyzed for 3-NT. We also explored the hypothesis that oxidative damage in autism is associated with altered expression of brain neurotrophins critical for normal brain growth and differentiation. The content of 8-OH-dG in cerebellar DNA isolated by the proteinase K method was measured using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA); neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) levels in cerebellar homogenates were measured using NT-3 ELISA. Cerebellar 8-OH-dG showed trend towards higher levels with the increase of 63.4% observed in autism. Analysis of cerebellar NT-3 showed a significant (p = 0.034) increase (40.3%) in autism. Furthermore, there was a significant positive correlation between cerebellar NT-3 and 3-NT (r = 0.83; p = 0.0408). These data provide the first quantitative measure of brain NT-3 and show its increase in the autistic brain. Altered levels of brain NT-3 are likely to contribute to autistic pathology not only by affecting brain axonal targeting and synapse formation but also by further exacerbating oxidative stress and possibly contributing to Purkinje cell abnormalities.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bokara KK, Brown E, McCormick R, Yallapragada PR, Rajanna S, Bettaiya R (2008) Lead-induced increase in antioxidant enzymes and lipid peroxidation products in developing rat brain. Biometals 21:9–16
Winham GC, Zhang L, Gunier R, Croen LA, Grether JK (2006) Autism spectrum disorders in relation to distribution of hazardous air pollutants in the San Francisco bay area. Environ Health Perspect 114:1438–1444
Palmer RF, Blanchard S, Wood R (2008) Proximity to point sources of environmental mercury release as a predictor of autism prevalence. Health Place 15(1):18–24
D’Amelio M, Ricci I, Sacco R, Liu X, D’Agruma L, Muscarella LA et al (2005) Paraoxonase gene variants are associated with autism in North America, but not in Italy: possible regional specificity in gene–environment interactions. Mol Psychiatry 10:1006–1016
Kimura-Kuroda J, Nagata I, Kuroda Y (2007) Disrupting effect of hydroxyl-polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) congeners on neuronal development of cerebellar Purkinje cells: a possible causal factor for the developmental brain disorders. Chemosphere 67:S412–S420
Brown GE, Jones SD, MacKewn AS, Plank EJ (2008) An exploration of possible pre- and postnatal correlates of autism: a pilot survey. Psychol Rep 102:273–282
Sultana R, Perluigi M, Butterfield DA (2006) Protein oxidation, lipid peroxidation in brain of subjects with Alzheimer’s disease: insights into mechanism of neurodegeneration from redox proteomics. Antioxid Redox Signal 8:2021–2037
Neumann H, Hazen L, Weinstein J, Mehl RA, Chin JW (2008) Genetically encoding protein oxidative damage. J Am Chem Soc 130:4028–4033
Sajdel-Sulkowska EM, Lipinski B, Windom H, Audhya T, McGinnis W (2008) Oxidative stress in autism: cerebellar 3 nitrotyrosine levels. Am J Biochem Biotechnol 4:73–84
Lovell MA, Gabbita SP, Markesbery WR (1999) Increased DNA oxidation and decreased levels of repair products in Alzheimer’s disease ventricular CSF. J Neurochem 72:771–776
Lee SH, Kim I, Chung BC (2007) Increased urinary level of oxidized nucleosides in patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer’s disease. Clin Biochem 40:936–938
Sato S, Mizuno Y, Hattori N (2005) Urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine levels as a biomarker for progression of Parkinson disease. Neurology 64:1081–1083
Fukuda M, Yamaguchi H, Yamamoto H, Aminaka M, Murakami H, Kamiyama N et al (2008) The evaluation of oxidative damage in children with brain damage using 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine levels. Brain Dev 30:131–136
Nishioka N, Arnold SE (2004) Evidence for oxidative DNA damage in the hippocampus of elderly patients with chronic schizophrenia. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 12:167–175
Ming X, Stein TP, Brimacombe M, Johnson WG, Lambert GH, Wagner GC (2005) Increased excretion of lipid peroxidation biomarker in autism. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fat Acids 73:379–384
Courchesne E, Karns CM, Davis HR, Ziccardi R, Carper RA, Tigue ZD (2001) Unusual brain growth patterns in early life in patients with autistic disorder: an MRI study. Neurology 57:245–254
Whitney ER, Kemper TL, Bauman ML, Rosene DL, Blatt GJ (2008) Cerebellar Purkinje cells are reduced in a subpopulation of autistic brains: a stereological experiment using calbindin-D28k. Cerebellum 7(3):406–416
Chao SL, Moss JM, Harry GJ (2007) Lead-induced alterations of apoptosis and neurotrophic factor mRNA in the developing rat cortex, hippocampus, and cerebellum. J Biochem Mol Toxicol 21:265–272
Marx CE, Vance BJ, Jarskog LF, Chescheir NC, Gilmore JH (1999) Nerve growth factor, brain derived neurotrophic factor and neurotrophin-3 levels in human amniotic fluid. Am J Obstet Gynecol 181:1225–1230
Courchesne E, Carper R, Akshoomoff N (2003) Evidence of brain overgrowth in the first year life in autism. JAMA 290:393–394
Rivto ER, Freeman BJ, Scheibel AB, Duong T, Robinson H, Guthrie D, Ritvo A (1986) Lower Purkinje cell counts in the cerebella of four autistic subjects: initial findings of the UCLA-NSac Autopsy Research Report. Am. J. Psychiatry 143:862–866
Courchesne E (1991) Neuroanatomic imaging in autism. Pediatrics 87:781–790
Kemper TL, Bauman ML (1993) The contribution of neuropathologic studies to the understanding of autism. Neurol Clin 11:175–187
Das KP, Chao SL, White LD, Haines WT, Harry GJ, Tilson HA, Barone S Jr (2001) Differential patterns of nerve growth factor, brain-derived neurotrophic factor and neurotrophin-3 mRNA and protein levels in developing regions of rat brain. Neuroscience 103:739–761
Li S, Qiu F, Xu A, Price SM, Xiang M (2004) Barhl1 regulates migration and survival of cerebellar granule cells by controlling expression of neurotrophin-3 gene. J Neuroscience 24:3104–3114
Kawakami H, Nitta A, Matsuyama Y, Kamiya M, Satake K, Sato K et al (2000) Increase in neurotrophin-3 expression followed by Purkinje cell degeneration in the adult rat cerebellum after spinal cord transaction. J Neurosci Res 62:668–674
Helbock HJ, Beckma KB, Ames BN (1999) 8-Hydroxydeoxyguanosine and 8 hydroxyguanine as biomarkers of oxidative stress. Method Enzymol 300:156–166
Bershtein LM, Poroshina LVV, TE TEV (2005) Content of 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine in steroid receptor positive and receptor-negative breast cancer cells. Bull Exp Biol Med 140:88–91
Miller MW, Mooney SM (2004) Chronic exposure to ethanol alters neurotrophin content in the basal forebrain–cortex system in the mature rat: effects on autocrine–paracrine mechanisms. J Neurobiol 60:490–498
Abdollahi M, Ranjbar A, Shadnia S, Nikfar S, Rezaiee A (2004) Pesticides and oxidative stress: a review. Med Sci Monit 10:141–147
Mutter J, Naumann J, Schneider R, Wlach H, Haley B (2005) Mercury and autism: accelerating evidence? Neuro Endocrinol Lett 26:439–446
Mutter J, Naumann J, Walach H, Daschner F (2005) Amalgam risk assessment with coverage of references up to 2005. Gesundheitswesen 67:204–216
Bradstreet J, Geier DA, Kartzinel JJ, Adams JB, Geier MR (2003) A case–control study of mercury burden in children with autistic disorders. J Am Phys Surg 8:76–80
Serajee FJ, Nabi R, Zhong H, Huq M (2004) Polymorhism in xenobiotic metabolism genes and autism. J Child Neurol 19:413–417
Zoroglu SS, Armutcu F, Ozen S, Gurel A, Sivasli E, Yetkin O et al (2004) Increased oxidative stress and altered activities of erythrocyte free radical scavenging enzymes in autism. Eur Arch Psychiatr Clin Neurosci 254:143–147
Yorbik O, Sayal A, Akay C, Akbiyik DI, Sohmen T (2002) Investigation of antioxidant enzymes in children with autistic disorder. Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fat Acids 67:341–343
James SJ, Cutler P, Melnyk S, Jernigan S, Janak L, Gaylor DW et al (2004) Metabolic biomarkers of increased oxidative stress and impaired methylation capacity in children with autism. Am J Clin Nutr 80:1611–1617
James SJ, Melny S, Jernigan S, Cleves MA, Halsted CH, Wong DH et al (2006) Metabolic endotype and related genotypes are associated with oxidative stress in children with autism. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatry Genet 141:947–956
Yang IA, Fong KM, Zimmerman PV, Holgate ST, Holloway JW (2008) Genetic susceptibility to the respiratory effects of air pollution. Thorax 63:555–563
Buyske S, Williams TA, Mars AE, Stenroos ES, Ming SX, Wang R et al (2006) Analysis of case-parent trios at a locus with a deletion allele: association of GSTM1 with autism. BMC 7:8
Nelson PG, Kuddo T, Song EY, Dambrosia JM, Kohler S, Satyanarayana G, Vandunk C et al (2006) Selected neuropeptides, and cytokines: developmental trajectory and concentrations in neonatal blood of children with autism or Down syndrome. Int J Dev Neurosci 241:73–80
Perry EK, Lee MW, Martin-Ruiz CM, Court JA, Volsen SG, Merrit J et al (2001) Cholinergic activity in autism: abnormalities in the cerebral cortex and basal forebrain. Am J Psychiatry 158:1058–1066
Ghosh A, Greenberg ME (1995) Distinct roles for bFGF and NT-3 in the regulation of cortical neurogenesis. Neuron 15:89–103
Segal RA, Pomeroy SL, Stiles CD (1995) Axonal growth and fasciculation linked to differential expression of BDNF and NT-3 receptors in developing granule cells. J Neurosci 15:4970–4981
Bates B, Hirt L, Thomas SS, Akbarian S, Le D, Amin-Hanjani S et al (2002) Neurotrophin-3 promotes cell death induced in cerebellar ischemia, oxygen-glucose deprivation, and oxidative stress: possible involvement of oxygen free radicals. Neurobiol Dis 9:24–37
Pasarica D, Gheorghiu M, Toparceanu F, Bleotu C, Ichim L, Trandafir T (2005) Neurotrophin-3, TNF-alpha and IL-6 relations in serum and cerebrospinal fluid of ischemic stroke patients. Roum Arch Microbiol Immunol 64:27–33
Morrison ME, Mason CA (1998) Granule neuron regulation of Purkinje cell development: striking a balance between neurotrophin and glutamate signaling. J Neurosci 18:3563–3573
Cappelletti G, Maggioni MG, Tedeschi G, Maci R (2003) Protein tyrosine nitration is triggered by nerve growth factor during neuronal differentiation of PC12 cells. Exp Cell Res 288:9–20
Vargas MR, Pehar M, Cassina P, Estavez AG, Beckman JS, Barbeito L (2004) Stimulation of nerve growth factor expression in astrocytes by peroxynitrite. In vivo 18:269–274
Behrens MM, Strasser U, Lobner D, Dugan LL (1999) Neurotrophin-mediated potentiation of neuronal injury. Microsc Res Tech 45:276–284
Yip J, Soghomonian JJ, Blatt GJ (2007) Decreased GAD67 mRNA levels in cerebellar Purkinje cells in autism: pathophysiological implications. Acta Neuropathol 113:559–568
Rout UK, Dhossche DM (2008) A pathogenetic model of autism involving Purkinje cell loss through anti GAD antibodies. Med Hypotheses 71:218–221
Acknowledgments
We thank the NICHD Brain and Tissue Bank for Developmental Disorders at the University of Maryland for providing us with human postmortem brain specimens. We thank the Autism Research Institute and the Japanese Society for Promotion of Science for their support of this study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sajdel-Sulkowska, E.M., Xu, M. & Koibuchi, N. Increase in Cerebellar Neurotrophin-3 and Oxidative Stress Markers in Autism. Cerebellum 8, 366–372 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-009-0105-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-009-0105-9