NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Along with genetic, metabolic and environmental factors, a team of researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore suggest that autism may also be caused or triggered by maternal antibodies that cross over through the placenta and are directed against the brain tissues of the fetus, adversely affecting brain development.Dr. Harvey S. Singer and colleagues note that children with autism have antibodies in the blood that react against brain tissue. Antibodies are an important part of the immune system in which proteins are produced and mount a defense in response to the presence of a foreign body, such as an invading virus.
