ArticleEnvironmental science and pollution research international2018
A comparison of blood metal levels in autism spectrum disorder and unaffected children in Shenzhen of China and factors involved in bioaccumulation of metals.
Article in Environmental science and pollution research international, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association between zinc status and autism spectrum disorder in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis of case-control studies.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Zinc Status and Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review.Nutrients · 2023Pooled it
- Essential element and toxic metal dyshomeostasis in childhood autism spectrum disorder: a comprehensive narrative review of correlations, tissue-specific distribution, and multifactorial regulation.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2026Review
- Associations between element mixtures and biomarkers of pathophysiologic pathways related to autism spectrum disorder.Journal of trace elements in medicine and biology : organ of the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements (GMS) · 2025Article
- Seafood Toxicant Exposure During Pregnancy, Lactation, and Childhood and Child Outcomes: A Scoping Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2025Article
- Prenatal Nutritional Factors and Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Narrative Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Changes of Target Essential Trace Elements in Multiple Sclerosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Biomedicines · 2024Review
- Article
- Manganese in autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: The state of the art.Current research in toxicology · 2024Review
- Mercury and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Exploring the Link through Comprehensive Review and Meta-Analysis.Biomedicines · 2023Review
- Consequences of Disturbing Manganese Homeostasis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Review
- Association between heavy metals exposure (cadmium, lead, arsenic, mercury) and child autistic disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2023Article
- The association of in utero tobacco smoke exposure, quantified by serum cotinine, and Autism Spectrum Disorder.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2021Article
- Environmental influence on neurodevelopmental disorders: Potential association of heavy metal exposure and autism.Journal of trace elements in medicine and biology : organ of the Society for Minerals and Trace Elements (GMS) · 2020Review
- The status of chemical elements in the blood plasma of children with autism spectrum disorder in Tunisia: a case-control study.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2020Article
- Early life metal exposure dysregulates cellular bioenergetics in children with regressive autism spectrum disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2020Article
- Oxidative Stress in Autism Spectrum Disorder.Molecular neurobiology · 2020Review
- Neurotoxicity by mercury is not associated with autism spectrum disorders in Spanish children.Italian journal of pediatrics · 2020Observational
- Neurobehavioral Consequences of Traffic-Related Air Pollution.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2019Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors at 7 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The present study compared blood plasma metals in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) with those in unaffected children in Shenzhen (China). Factors associated with the metal bioaccumulation were further investigated. Thirty-four blood samples of children with ASD were collected in a local hospital (Shenzhen Children's Hospital), while those of 38 unaffected children were from a local large public kindergarten, during March to April in 2016. Metal analysis was carried out by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry. The results showed that children with ASD had higher (P < 0.01, 0.05) Pb (ASD 31.9 μg/L, unaffected children 18.6 μg/L), Hg (3.83, and 1.09 μg/L), and Cd (0.70 and 0.26 μg/L) than unaffected children, while essential elements Zn (ASD 4552.0 μg/L, unaffected children 5118.6 μg/L), Se (61.7 and 90.6 μg/L), and Mn (13.5 and 21.4 μg/L) showed an opposite pattern. Moreover, the children exposed to passive smoking had higher (P < 0.05) Cd (passive smoking 1.08 μg/L; non-passive smoking 0.22 μg/L) than those without the exposure. Positive associations were found between levels of Hg or Pb and seafood consumption as well as body mass index (BMI). More future work is needed in order to clarify the association between metal exposure and ASD occurrence in China.
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Registered trials
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