High levels of estrogen in the womb linked to autism

自闭症与子宫内的雌激素水平高有关

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上海译锐翻译   2019-8-7   12:09 a.m.

Scientist have identified a link between exposure to high levels of oestrogen sex hormones in the womb and the likelihood of developing autism. The findings are published today in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

科学家发现子宫内高水平的雌性激素可能会导致患上自闭症。研究结果于今日发表于《分子精神病学》刊物。

The discovery adds further evidence to support the prenatal sex steroid theory of autism first proposed 20 years ago.

这一发现找到了更多支持自闭症产前性类固醇理论的证据。该理论于20年前被首次提出。

Prenatal：产前

Sex steroid：性类固醇

Autism：自闭症

In 2015, a team of scientists at the University of Cambridge and the State Serum Institute in Denmark measured the levels of four prenatal steroid hormones, including two known as androgens, in the amniotic fluid in the womb and discovered that they were higher in male foetuses who later developed autism. These androgens are produced in higher quantities in male than in female foetuses on average, so might also explain why autism occurs more often in boys. They are also known to masculinise parts of the brain, and to have effects on the number of connections between brain cells.

2015年，来自剑桥大学和丹麦国家血清研究所的科学家团队测量了子宫羊水中四种产前甾类激素，其中两种为雄性激素。通过测量发现，这四种激素偏高的男性胎儿随后患有自闭症。平均而言，男性胚胎所产生的雄激素数量要比女性胚胎多，因此这也解释了为什么自闭症更多出现在男孩身上。这些激素也可以使部分大脑雄性化并会对大脑细胞间的连接数量产生影响。

Androgen：雄激素

Amniotic fluid： 羊水

Today, the same scientists have built on their previous findings by testing the amniotic fluid samples from the same 98 individuals sampled from the Danish Biobank, which has collected amniotic samples from over 100,000 pregnancies, but this time looking at another set of prenatal sex steroid hormones called oestrogens. This is an important next step because some of the hormones previously studied are directly converted into oestrogens.

今天，同样的科学家团队们在此前实验结果的基础上测试了同样98位个人的羊水样本。这98人的样本由丹麦生物资料库提供。丹麦生物资料库收集了超过10万名孕妇的羊膜样本。在这次的实验中，科学家们会查看另外一种被称为雌激素的产前性类固醇激素。这是非常重要的一步，因为此前研究的部分激素会直接转变为雌激素。

Biobank：生物资料库

Oestrogen：雌激素

All four oestrogens were significantly elevated, on average, in the 98 foetuses who later developed autism, compared to the 177 foetuses who did not. High levels of prenatal oestrogens were even more predictive of likelihood of autism than were high levels of prenatal androgens (such as testosterone). Contrary to popular belief that associates oestrogens with feminisation, prenatal oestrogens have effects on brain growth and also masculinise the brain in many mammals.

平均而言，与177例未患有自闭症的胚胎相比，在98例后来患有自闭症的胚胎中，所有四类雌激素水平均显著升高。高水平的产前雌激素甚至比高水平的产前雄激素（比如睾酮）对自闭症更加具有预测性。与大众认为的雌激素与女性化有关相反，产前雌激素对大脑的发育具有影响并会在许多哺乳动物中使大脑雄性化。

foetus：胚胎

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, Director of the Autism Research Centre at the University of Cambridge, who led this study and who first proposed the prenatal sex steroid theory of autism, said: "This new finding supports the idea that increased prenatal sex steroid hormones are one of the potential causes for the condition. Genetics is well established as another, and these hormones likely interact with genetic factors to affect the developing foetal brain."

剑桥大学自闭症研究中心主任Simon Baron-Cohen教授是该项研究的引领者并是提出自闭症产前性类固醇理论的第一人。Simon教授表示：“这一新研究结果证明，增加的产前性类固醇激素是造成自闭症的潜在原因之一。遗传学是另外一个重要的原因。这些激素很可能与遗传因素相互作用以影响正在发育中的胎儿大脑。”

Alex Tsompanidis, a PhD student in Cambridge who worked on the study, said: "These elevated hormones could be coming from the mother, the baby or the placenta. Our next step should be to study all these possible sources and how they interact during pregnancy."

同样参与研究的、剑桥大学的博士生Alex Tsompanidis表示：“升高的激素水平可能来自于母体、胎儿或胎盘。我们下一步的研究工作应该是研究所有的激素来源以及它们在孕期是如何相互作用的。”

Placenta：胎盘

Dr Alexa Pohl, part of the Cambridge team, said: "This finding is exciting because the role of oestrogens in autism has hardly been studied, and we hope that we can learn more about how they contribute to foetal brain development in further experiments. We still need to see whether the same result holds true in autistic females."

剑桥大学研究团队成员Alexa Pohl博士表示：“这一结果让人振奋，因为几乎没有人去研究雌激素在自闭症中所起的作用。我们希望在后期的实验中，能够了解更多这些雌激素是如何对胎儿大脑发育产生影响的。我们仍需判断同样的结果对于患有自闭症的女性是否也同样适用。”

However, the team cautioned that these findings cannot and should not be used to screen for autism. "We are interested in understanding autism, not preventing it," added Professor Baron-Cohen.

然而，研究团队也提醒到，这些结果不能且不应用于筛查自闭症。Boron-Cohen教授补充表示：“我们所感兴趣的点是了解而非预防自闭症。”

Dr Arieh Cohen, the biochemist on the team, based at the State Serum Institute in Copenhagen, said: "This is a terrific example of how a unique biobank set up 40 years ago is still reaping scientific fruit today in unimagined ways, through international collaboration."

团队的生物化学家、位于哥本哈根国家血清研究所的Arieh Cohen博士表示：“这次的研究很好地证明了，通过国际间的合作，40年前所建立的、独一无二的生物资料库仍然在以无法想象的方式收获科学研究的硕果。”

Serum：血清

文章来源：科学日报    编辑：Susan