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blood Type and Autism

I doubt there is any substantive correlation between blood type and autism. I am O+. There is likely to be correlation of blood types within a family unit, but as is already evident in some of the responses that blood types are as varied as our personalities, and I seriously doubt that anyone will make a major supporting linkage between autism and blood type.

On the question of inheritance, within myself and my family there are strong indications. My sister and my still living brother are on the spectrum, as is my sister's son. This is all based on my own observations as I am the only one officially diagnosed. Oh, and my father was most probably autistic as well but that again, is from seeing him throughout his life.
 
None of us is diagnosed we see it as a gift, let the scientists sort it out. Hard to ignore what I see, after all my wife saw it first.
 
Neonatal RRT said:
De novo/epigenetic genes are typically those that are part of our DNA and may be silent for generations,...but are then "activated" when some stimulus "triggers" them,...and then sets in motion some "other" cellular metabolic function. So,...within the context of autism,...a sperm and egg come together, the chromosomes and DNA combine forming the genetic information for this new person. Some of those genes are from your parents,...anything familial,...this new person will either exhibit those genetic traits, or be a "carrier" (having the gene, but not express it).

Now, here's what we are sorting out right now,...of the 1000+ de novo genes identified as "associated" with autism,...what are the triggers for activating those genes? Is it changes in societies where people are having children later and later in life,..."old sperm and eggs",...seems likely, as there is a significant rise in all sorts of fetal/pediatric health issues/anomalies with "older parents" (32+ years of age). "Older" parents are also more likely to be diabetic/prediabetic, have gestational diabetes, have hypothyroidism, low testosterone/high estrogen,...all of which have been identified as strongly associated with autism. Furthermore,...good Lord,...we are quite aware of all the build-up of environmental toxins, phytoestrogens (plastic bottle BPA, soy, etc.). A lot going on here. So, the autism genome project has identified several autism variants associated with specific triggers,...but it clearly is not complete. It is very possible that with one person, the autism was primarily triggered by mom and dad being 35+ and having hormonal imbalances,...and another person, the autism was triggered by the insecticides being sprayed on the fields near their home. This is all speculation, and we need to know more before pointing fingers. Clearly, there is no "smoking gun".

Furthermore, we also have this interesting concept of "genetic loading",...it was identified that female autistics have significantly more of these autism genes activated than males,...yet, the interesting part is that it takes a lot more genetic loading for females to exhibit their autism than males. A possible reason for the 4:1 male:female autism diagnosis rates,...OR,...is it that clinicians are focused upon diagnosing autism based upon male identifiers,...and not female identifiers,...suggesting a need for female-specific autism testing and identification methods? A lot of questions.
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One thing that I would be interested in seeing is the regulatory aspects of the genes. A single pleiotropic gene may look like multiple genetic involvement, and some, when active, relax the supercoiling towards the 3-prime and 5-prime directions, allowing transcription of adjacent genes that were hindered by the supercoiling.
 
I'm O+, as is my sister.our parents were older, early 30s, unusual in the late 50s early 1960s, we used to think others parents were so young looking! My dad seemed to have had high autistic traits or Aspergers, a paternal cousin is an IT worker with face blindness, he's 60 odd too.
 
Gerald Wilgus said:
One thing that I would be interested in seeing is the regulatory aspects of the genes. A single pleiotropic gene may look like multiple genetic involvement, and some, when active, relax the supercoiling towards the 3-prime and 5-prime directions, allowing transcription of adjacent genes that were hindered by the supercoiling.
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Good point. There seems to be a lot of genes linked to autisms,...disproportionately more than say, other "conditions". I think we will get there at some point. Hopefully, they are looking at this.
 
Blood type...not a comfortable subject for me. B+ :eek:
 
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I think it will take a long while (if ever) to sort out all of the epigenetic effects involving autism (or anything for that matter). The effects are multigenerational and this makes it super complex. A simple explanation is this. Every woman is born with all of the eggs she will ever have, already formed inside her body. They only mature on a monthly basis before they are released. Therefore, the egg that a person comes from, originally came into being inside of their grandmother's womb, while their mother was a fetus. That means that any sort of environmental or metabolic affects causing anything (your metabolism, chronic disease or other traits), could have been triggered in your body, your mom's body (during her pregnancy with you, or before you were born), or your grandmother's body during her pregnancy with your mother. If you want to read on multigenerational epigenetic effects, look up the Dutch famine studies that were done during and post WW2. They followed subjects families for generations and have found a lot of evidence that what grandmothers were exposed to during pregnancy (they had a famine, but excellent medical care, as only shipments of food were being blocked by the nazis) has a direct effect on the rates of chronic disease in her children and grandchildren. They were even able to determine how there were different outcomes depending on which trimester of pregnancy the women were in when the famine occurred. Even more interesting is how recent studies show that undernutrition and overnutrition are both equally damaging, depending on the nutrients (for example too much folic acid can be just as bad as not enough, just different effects on the fetus/ development of the child). There are so many things that can have epigenetic effects, and only time will tell what turns certain genes on and off.
 
MC1Rcat said:
I think it will take a long while (if ever) to sort out all of the epigenetic effects involving autism (or anything for that matter). The effects are multigenerational and this makes it super complex. A simple explanation is this. Every woman is born with all of the eggs she will ever have, already formed inside her body. They only mature on a monthly basis before they are released. Therefore, the egg that a person comes from, originally came into being inside of their grandmother's womb, while their mother was a fetus. That means that any sort of environmental or metabolic affects causing anything (your metabolism, chronic disease or other traits), could have been triggered in your body, your mom's body (during her pregnancy with you, or before you were born), or your grandmother's body during her pregnancy with your mother. If you want to read on multigenerational epigenetic effects, look up the Dutch famine studies that were done during and post WW2. They followed subjects families for generations and have found a lot of evidence that what grandmothers were exposed to during pregnancy (they had a famine, but excellent medical care, as only shipments of food were being blocked by the nazis) has a direct effect on the rates of chronic disease in her children and grandchildren. They were even able to determine how there were different outcomes depending on which trimester of pregnancy the women were in when the famine occurred. Even more interesting is how recent studies show that undernutrition and overnutrition are both equally damaging, depending on the nutrients (for example too much folic acid can be just as bad as not enough, just different effects on the fetus/ development of the child). There are so many things that can have epigenetic effects, and only time will tell what turns certain genes on and off.
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Great I'm 2nd generation Dutch best conjecture I've seen yet.
 
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