PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Wiebe Braam
AU  - Friederike Ehrhart
AU  - Chris T. Evelo
AU  - Anneke P.H.M. Maas
AU  - Marcel G. Smits
AU  - Leopold Curfs
TI  - Low parental melatonin levels increases autism spectrum disorder risk in children
AID  - 10.1101/046722
DP  - 2016 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 046722
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/08/046722.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/08/046722.full
AB  - Low melatonin levels are a frequent finding in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) patients. Melatonin is important for normal neurodevelopment and embryonic growth and highly effective in protecting DNA from oxidative damage. Melatonin deficiency, possibly due to low CYP1A2 activity, could be an etiologic factor. As the fetus does not produce melatonin, low maternal melatonin levels should be involved. We measured 6-sulfatoxymelatonin in urine of 60 mothers of a child with ASD that attended our sleep clinic for people with an intellectual disability (ID), and asked for coffee consumption habits, as these are known to be related to CYP1A2 activity. 6-Sulfatoxymelatonin levels were significantly lower in mothers than in controls (p = 0.005), as well as evening coffee consumption (p = 0.034).ASDAutism spectrum disorderIDintellectual disability6-SM6–sulfatoxymelatonin