Role of Pre-natal Vitamin D and Gene Interactions in Autism Spectrum Disorders: Leveraging an Existing Case-Control Study

This study is the first to investigate the role of perinatal vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency in ASD etiology, as modulated by race and genes involved in vitamin D metabolism and receptor activity, in a large, racially-diverse cohort. The role of vitamin D in a number of health conditions has gained recent attention, concurrent with high frequency of vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency being documented, attributed to changes in lifestyle. Evidence indicating higher risk of autism by factors shown to be related to lower vitamin D levels and recent advances in the understanding of the role of vitamin D on brain and immune function support a potential role in autism etiology that warrants rigorous investigation. A few studies of children with autism (or their mothers) have found lower vitamin D levels, but they all were limited by small samples and measurement of levels after the critical period of brain development.

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