Abstract
Autism is a complex neurodevelopmental disorder that usually presents itself in early childhood and is thought to be influenced by genetic and environmental factors. Oxidative stress has been implicated in the etiology of neurological, neurodevelopment and neuropsychiatric disorders including Parkinson's and Alzheimer disease, Down's syndrome and autism. The biological fluid levels of the 15-F2t-Isoprostane (15-F2t-IsoP) are regarded as being the most significant biochemical index of oxidative stress. There are some studies that measured 15-F2t-IsoP in the plasma and urine of children with autism. However 15-F2t-IsoP has not been measured in the saliva of children with autism. This procedure is less stressful for the children with autism. The purpose of this study is to evaluate saliva levels of 15-F2t-IsoP in children diagnosed with autism. Saliva levels of 15-F2t-IsoP were determined in 18 children with autism age: 6.6±1.6 years and 21 healthy controls age: 7.5±1.4 years. Compared to the control group, the children with autism had significantly higher saliva levels of 15-F2t-IsoP. From the above-mentioned it is concluded that a) lipid peroxidative biomarker 15-F2t-IsoP is increased in autistic children, and b) saliva is the proper (optimal) biological fluid for the evaluation the lipid peroxidation in autistic children.