Table 1.

Characteristics of groups and biochemical results in patients with ASD and control subjects

	AD	Controls AD	P	PDD-NOS	Controls PDD-NOS	P	AS	Controls AS	P
Number of subjects	15	13		19	22		5	8
Age (years)	5.10 ± 0.45	5.89 ± 0.61	0.31	8.83 ± 0.84	9.05 ± 0.91	0.96	9.23 ± 1.82	10.22 ± 1.05	0.65
Sex (male, %)	13 (86.7%)	8 (61.5%)	0.19	13 (68.4%)	13 (56.5%)	0.56	5 (100%)	8 (100%)
Methionine (μM)*	20.69 ± 1.87	27.49 ± 2.01	0.01	23.62 ± 1.09	27.51 ± 1.27	0.03	22.70 ± 3.22	27.07 ± 1.38	0.26
α-aminobutyric acid (μM)*	11.14 ± 1.17	15.73 ± 1.37	0.01	10.73 ± 0.83	14.62 ± 0.74	0.001	21.72 ± 5.49	14.40 ± 1.37	0.26
Homocysteine (μM)*	5.19 ± 0.45	5.86 ± 0.39	0.27	6.49 ± 0.36	6.88 ± 0.52	0.54	5.90 ± 0.85	6.72 ± 0.43	0.36
Cysteine (μM)*	181.06 ± 6.42	204.76 ± 7.16	0.02	206.10 ± 5.93	205.95 ± 6.81	0.98	215.00 ± 15.81	209.50 ± 8.93	0.75
Cystathionine (nM)*	162.53 ± 16.56	160.84 ± 11.88	0.93	140.63 ± 9.30	149.00 ± 7.89	0.49	118.40 ± 13.33	155.25 ± 14.26	0.09
Serine (μM)*	99.46 ± 3.50	125.23 ± 13.12	0.08	113.31 ± 5.24	114.60 ± 8.15	0.90	96.20 ± 6.40	124.75 ± 17.35	0.16
Glycine (μM)*	184.20 ± 12.05	217.23 ± 14.55	0.09	207.94 ± 10.31	209.73 ± 9.02	0.89	188.60 ± 13.59	224.00 ± 17.61	0.14
Methylglycine (μM)*	5.59 ± 0.64	5.37 ± 0.96	0.84	4.16 ± 0.27	5.78 ± 0.62	0.08	4.85 ± 0.27	4.49 ± 0.90	0.77
Dimethylglycine (μM)*	4.76 ± 0.21	6.62 ± 1.25	0.17	5.48 ± 0.39	5.77 ± 0.72	0.73	6.48 ± 1.02	7.62 ± 1.92	0.67
Total Glutathione (μM)#	161.16 ± 10.68	242.67 ± 32.94	0.02	209.96 ± 21.71	213.32 ± 21.01	0.91	147.31 ± 33.21	171.29 ± 32.77	0.62
Vitamin B12 (pg/ml)**	747.09 ± 94.26	724.50 ± 140.51	0.89	608.50 ± 67.82	833.02 ± 127.34	0.13	536.04 ± 87.63	542.47 ± 175.57	0.98
Folate (ng/ml)**	10.45 ± 1.49	8.13 ± 0.68	0.17	7.98 ± 0.75	8.63 ± 0.68	0.53	13.51 ± 2.06	8.17 ± 0.91	0.06

Data are presented as mean ± standard error of the mean (S.E.M.);

^*plasma

^#whole blood

^**serum.