Immune profiling shows limited systemic changes in children with autism after autologous cord blood transfusion.

INTRODUCTION

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD or autism) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by social difficulties and restricted, repetitive behaviors, and is a leading cause of morbidity in children and adolescents. Immune dysregulation, including neuroinflammation, brain autoantibodies, and altered adaptive responses, has been implicated in autism pathophysiology. To address these immune alterations, autologous cord blood transfusion has been proposed as a therapy, given its abundance of immune regulatory cells and lack of rejection risk.

METHODS

Using multi-parametric mass cytometry, we profiled the peripheral blood mononuclear cells from children with autism at pre-transfusion and 6 months post-transfusion to assess the effects of this intervention on effector and regulatory subsets.

RESULTS

Our results showed that transfusion did not increase regulatory T or B cells. However, there was a decrease in CD4+ Central Memory (CM) T cells and memory B cells 6 months after transfusion that are not attributable to changes related to an increase in age.

DISCUSSION: Our findings suggest that autologous cord blood transfusion does not appear to provide major systemic immunoregulatory benefits in children with autism.