Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder of unknown aetiology (cause). It is suggested to involve both genetic susceptibility and environmental factors including in the latter environmental toxins. Human exposure to the environmental toxin aluminium has been linked, if tentatively, to autism spectrum disorder. Herein we… …measure, for the first time, the aluminium content of brain tissue from donors with a diagnosis of autism… …The aluminium content of brain tissue in autism was consistently high… …These are some of the highest values for aluminium in human brain tissue yet recorded and one has to question why, for example, the aluminium content of the occipital (rearmost) lobe of a 15 year old boy would be 8.74 (11.59) µg/g dry wt.?… …The pre-eminence of intracellular aluminium associated with non-neuronal cells was a standout observation in autism brain tissue and may offer clues as to both the origin of the brain aluminium as well as a putative role in autism spectrum disorder.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0946672X17308763