The Effects of Gender in Neurological Disorders: A Special Focus on Autism Spectrum Disorders and Thiomersal Toxicity

Year 2022, Volume: 47 Issue: 3, 393 - 418, 19.10.2022

Selinay Başak Erdemli Köse Aylin Balcı Özyurt Anıl Yirün Pınar Erkekoğlu

Abstract

Estrogen and testosterone serve as the main sex hormones in
humans. In addition, they have many different functions in terms
of metabolic, and body defense. Gender differences lead to various
social, economic, physiological, and pathological outcomes. Gender
differences may also cause different toxicokinetics for metalslike
mercury.Mercury exposure is suggested to cause neurological
disorders. Thiomersal which is one of the most widely used
preservatives particularly in vaccines, consists of approximately
50% mercury by weight. Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have
been associated with thiomersal exposure from vaccines in the last
decades. Recent studies show that the incidence of ASD is higher in
boys compared to girls. However, studies and discussions continue
in this area. It is thought that this situation may be related to
the difference in the toxicokinetics of mercury in different genders.
There are concerns that ASD in girls may have a distinct phenotype
than boys. The studies are now focused on whether there is an
overlook due to the difficulty of diagnosing in females or it is more
common in males due to physiological and hormonal reasons or
not. In this review, we evaluated the frequency of ASD in different
genders, the association between thiomersal and ASD and whether
thiomersal exposure from vaccines could be an underlying factor of
ASD in boys or not.

Keywords

Autism, gender, neurodevelopmental disorders, mercury, thiomersal

References

• Allen, J. S., Damasio, H., Grabowski, T. J., Bruss, J., & Zhang, W. (2003). Sexual dimorphism and asymmetries in the gray-white composition of the human cerebrum. NeuroImage, 18(4), 880–894. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-8119(03)00034-x