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Vitamin A
In so many children with autism,
vision plays a role in behavior and ability.
The behavior or symptom associated with autism might be gazing at objects
in an unusual manner, staring at spinning toys, little or no eye contact. The
ability may be that they are visual learners or they can see obscure objects of
interest to them. For almost a century, vitamin A has been advertised as "good for
the eyes." It seems logical that there may be a relationship between autism and
vitamin A. The question is "Could this be a syndrome of deficiency or
toxicity of a vitamin A metabolite?"
The research involved in determining a potential defect in the metabolism of vitamin A
(the retinoids) will be complicated indeed. The vitamin A cascade is an exquisitely
controlled metabolic process. And furthermore, there may be over a thousand
vitamin A derivatives to research. The following are articles related to vitamin A
and autism for the researcher in you.
REFERENCES
Borelli, E. and Chambon, P. 1999. Control of transcription and neurological
diseases. Molecular Psychiatry 4:112-4.
Chiang, M.-Y., Misner, D., Kempermann, G., Schikorski, T., Giguere, V., Sucov,
H.M., Gage, F.H., Stevens, C.F., and Evans, E.M. 1998. An essential role for
retinoid receptors RAR and RXR-gamma in long-term potentiation and depression.
Neuron 21:1353-61.
Clark, J.H., Rhoden, D.K., and Turner, D.S. 1993. Symptomatic vitamin A and D
deficiencies in an eight-year-old with autism. J Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition
17:284-6.
Connor, M.J., and Sidell, N. 1997 Retinoic acid synthesis in normal and
Alzheimer diseased brain and human neural cells. Molecular and Chemical
Neuropathology 30:239-52.
Goodman, A.B. 1998 Three independent lines of evidence suggest retinoids as
causal to schizophrenia. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 95:7240-44.
Goodman, A.B. 1995. Chromosomal locations and modes of action of genes of the
retinoid (vitamin A) system support their involvement in the etiology of
schizophrenia. Am. J. Med. Genetics 60-335-48.
Goodman, A.B. 1994. A family history study of schizophrenia spectrum disorders
suggests new candidate genes in schizophrenia and autism. Psychiatric Quarterly
65:287-97.
Vogel, G. 2000. The Brains Behind the Face. Science 287:1583.
Meyer, D., and Hunsaker, D. 1973. Evidence for a biological basis of infantile
autism. Orthomolecular Psychiatry -159-69.
Niederreither, K., Subbarayan, V., Dolle, P. and Chambon, P. 1999. Embryonic
retinoic acid synthesis is essential for early mouse post-implantation development.
Nature Genetics 21:444-9.
Steinemann, T. and Christiansen, S.P. 1998. Vitamin A deficiency and xerophthalmia
in an autistic child. Arch. Ophthalmol. 116:392-3.
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