Maternal Inflammation During Pregnancy

  In The Politics of Autism, I discuss various ideas about what causes the condition. 

Samuel Diamond at Cold Spring Harbor:

With the help of partners like the Simons Foundation, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has played a leading role in identifying autism’s genetic roots. Now,  CSHL scientists are helping to explain how inflammation during pregnancy may lead to neurodevelopmental disorders in children.

Irene Sanchez Martin is a postdoc in CSHL Assistant Professor Lucas Cheadle’s lab. She recently presented her research on maternal immune activation at a Society for Neuroscience press conference in Chicago. She points to recent experiments in the Cheadle lab in which a mouse embryo may begin to show early signs of developmental deficits soon after its pregnant mother is exposed to a virus.

“The model we use is very well established for autism spectrum disorder,” Sanchez Martin explains. “The difference in my work is that I check what happened to the fetuses 24 hours after exposure to maternal inflammation, rather than analyzing the behaviors of the offspring as adults.” This is the first time scientists have been able to look at the effects of prenatal inflammation on an embryo in an autism model. Such research may one day enable physicians to identify early warning signs before a child is even born.

Here is a long. growing, and probably incomplete list of other correlates, risk factors, and possible causes that have been the subject of serious studies: 

1. Inflammatory bowel disease;
2. Pesticides;
3. Air pollution and proximity to freeways;
4. Maternal thyroid issues;
5. Autoimmune disorders;
6. Induced labor;
7. Preterm birth;
8. Fever;  
9. Birth by cesarean section;
10. Anesthesia during cesarean sections;
11. Maternal and paternal obesity;
12. Maternal diabetes;
13. Maternal and paternal age;
14. Grandparental age;
15. Maternal post-traumatic stress disorder;
16. Maternal anorexia;
17. Smoking during pregnancy;
18. Cannabis use during pregnancy;
19. Antidepressant use during pregnancy;
20. Polycystic ovary syndrome;
21. Infant opioid withdrawal;
22. Zinc deficiency;
23. Sulfate deficiency;
24. Processed foods;
25. Maternal occupational exposure to solvents;
26. Congenital heart disease;
27. Insufficient placental allopregnanolone.
28. Estrogen in the womb;
29. Morning sickness;
30. Paternal family history;
31. Parental preterm birth;
32. Antiseizure meds
33. Location of forebears
34. Lithium
35. Aspartame
36. BPA
37. Brain inflammation
38. Maternal asthma
39. Infertility
40. Ultraprocessed foods
41. Household chemicals
42. Parental psychiatric disorders
43. Fluoride
44. Fatty acids in umbilical cord blood