Effect of vitamin A supplementation on gut microbiota in children with autism spectrum disorders - a pilot study
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Dysbiosis of gut microbiota are commonly reported in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and may contribute to behavioral impairment. Vitamin A (VA) plays a role in regulation of gut microbiota. This study was performed to investigate the role of VA in the changes of gut microbiota and changes of autism functions in children with ASD. RESULTS: Sixty four, aged 1 to 8 years old children with ASD completed a 6-month follow-up study with VA intervention. High-performance liquid chromatography was used to assess plasma retinol levels. The Autism Behaviour Checklist (ABC), Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and Social Responsiveness Scale (SRS) were used to assess autism symptoms. CD38 and acid-related orphan receptor alpha (RORA) mRNA levels were used to assess autism-related biochemical indicators' changes. Evaluations of plasma retinol, ABC, CARS, SRS, CD38 and RORA mRNA levels were performed before and after 6 months of intervention in the 64 children. Illumina MiSeq for 16S rRNA genes was used to compare the differences in gut microbiota before and after 6 months of treatment in the subset 20 of the 64 children. After 6 months of intervention, plasma retinol, CD38 and RORA mRNA levels significantly increased (all P < 0.05); the scores of ABC, CARS and SRS scales showed no significant differences (all P > 0.05) in the 64 children. Meanwhile, the proportion of Bacteroidetes/Bacteroidales significantly increased and the proportion of Bifidobacterium significantly decreased in the subgroup of 20 (all false discovery rate (FDR) q < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Bacteroidetes/Bacteroidales were the key taxa related to VA. Moreover, VA played a role in the changes in autism biomarkers. It remains unclear whether the VA concentration is associated with autism symptoms. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study protocol was peer reviewed and approved by the institutional review board of Children's Hospital, Chongqing Medical University in 2013 and retrospectively registered in Chinese Clinical Trial Registry (ChiCTR) on November 6, 2014 (TRN: ChiCTR-ROC-14005442 ).
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Two studies showed increases in alpha diversity and six studies showed no significant changes in alpha diversity.
“Two studies showed increases [31, 33] and six studies showed no significant changes in alpha diversity [36, 42, 43, 48, 50, 54].”
From Gut microbiota changes in children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review (2020) · cites this paper as [43]
Post-vitamin A administration, significant increases were seen in plasma retinol, CD38 and RORA mRNA levels, but no changes were seen in ASD symptomatology.
“Post-vitamin A administration, significant increases were also seen in other forms of biomarkers, including plasma retinol, CD38 and RORA mRNA levels. However, no changes were seen in the ASD symptomatology of the study participants [43].”
From Gut microbiota changes in children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review (2020) · cites this paper as [43]
One study found that vitamin A administration to children with ASD increased Bacteroidetes at phylum level, with both Bacteroides and Prevotella species increasing post-treatment, while all other measured phyla and genera decreased.
“One study investigated the effect of administering vitamin A [43] on children with ASD and found an increase in abundance on the Bacteroidetes phylum level (Table 5). Both Bacteroides species and Prevotella species levels increased post-treatment. On the other hand, all of the other phyla and genera measured showed a decrease in abundance.”
From Gut microbiota changes in children with autism spectrum disorder: a systematic review (2020) · cites this paper as [43]
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References 70 · Cited by 115
Research works printed but not linked: 1
- [23]WHO Guildeline:vitamin a supplementation in infants and children 6–59 months of age 2011 Geneva World Health Organization 24575452
- Authors
- Liu, J., Liu, X., Xiong, X.-Q., Yang, T., Cui, T., Hou, N.-L., Lai, X., Liu, S., Guo, M., Liang, X.-H., Cheng, Q., Chen, J., & Li, T.-Y.
- Affiliations
- Children's Hospital of Chongqing Medical University (CN)
- Dazhou Vocational and Technical College (CN)
- China International Science and Technology Cooperation (CN)
- Corresponding author
- Chen, Jie
- Venue
- BMC Microbiology
- Published
- 2017-09-22
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 204-204
- ISSN
- 1471-2180 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC5610466
- OpenAlex
- W2757638882
- Cited by
- 115
- References
- 70
- Citations by year
- 2026: 7 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 5
- FWCI
- 3.91
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- BMC Microbiology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Chinese National Natural Science Foundation (81471518, 81470799)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Autism Spectrum Disorder Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Child Nutrition and Feeding Issues
- Keywords
- vitamin A supplementation, autism spectrum disorder, gut microbiota, dysbiosis, plasma retinol, CD38, RORA, Bifidobacterium, autism symptoms, children
- MeSH terms
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, Gastrointestinal Microbiome, Child, Child Behavior, Child, Preschool, DNA, Bacterial, Feces, Female, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Infant, Male, Pilot Projects, RNA, Messenger, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S, Vitamin A, Biomarkers, Single-Blind Method, Dietary Supplements, ADP-ribosyl Cyclase 1, Non-Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
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