Gene expression in human brain implicates sexually dimorphic pathways in autism spectrum disorders.
Nat Commun
; 7: 10717, 2016 Feb 19.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-26892004
ABSTRACT
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is more prevalent in males, and the mechanisms behind this sex-differential risk are not fully understood. Two competing, but not mutually exclusive, hypotheses are that ASD risk genes are sex-differentially regulated, or alternatively, that they interact with characteristic sexually dimorphic pathways. Here we characterized sexually dimorphic gene expression in multiple data sets from neurotypical adult and prenatal human neocortical tissue, and evaluated ASD risk genes for evidence of sex-biased expression. We find no evidence for systematic sex-differential expression of ASD risk genes. Instead, we observe that genes expressed at higher levels in males are significantly enriched for genes upregulated in post-mortem autistic brain, including astrocyte and microglia markers. This suggests that it is not sex-differential regulation of ASD risk genes, but rather naturally occurring sexually dimorphic processes, potentially including neuron-glial interactions, that modulate the impact of risk variants and contribute to the sex-skewed prevalence of ASD.
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Encéfalo
/
Expresión Génica
/
Trastorno del Espectro Autista
Tipo de estudio:
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Nat Commun
Asunto de la revista:
BIOLOGIA
/
CIENCIA
Año:
2016
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos