Abstract
Objective:
In this article, it was aimed to review the recent literature on genetic risk factors, which belived to play an important role in the etiology of autism.
Method:
A Medline and Turkish Medical Index search was conducted using the key words autism and genetic.
Results:
The importance of genetic factors was confirmed by frequent association of this disorder with hereditary diseases, by high concordance of the disorder in monozygotic twins and also by higher risk for the siblings of autistic patients. Autism is considered to be etiologically heterogeneous and is thought to be the result of multiple, interacting genes. Genome screens also supported a complex pattern of genetic transmission involving multiple genes. Recently, research is focused in abnormalities on chromosome 15 (15q11-13), 7 (7q) and 2 (2q).
Discussion:
The identification of etiological factors in autism may contribute significantly to the development of more functional classification systems based on etiology and to the prevention and treatment of the disorder.
Keywords: Autism, etiology, genetic, candidate genes
