Document Details

Document Type : Thesis 
Document Title :
The Potential Effect of Vitamin D Supplementations on Oxytocin Receptor OXTR Gene Expression in Saudi Autistic Children
التأثيرالمحتمل لمكملات فيتامين د على التعبيرالجيني لمستقبل الأوكسيتوسين OXTR في الأطفال السعوديين المصابين بالتوحد
 
Subject : Faculty of Science 
Document Language : Arabic 
Abstract : Several earlier researchers have proposed vitamin D deficiency as an environmental risk factor for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Furthermore, it has been demonstrated that the vitamin D hormone (calcitriol) affects the expression of over 200 genes, including the oxytocin and its receptor (OXTR) gene. Calcitriol appears to influence the production and response to the oxytocin hormone. Oxytocin hormone has been suggested to have a role in the social deficit associated with autism. Additionally, a genome-wide association (GWAS) has identified the OXTR gene as a potential candidate for ASD. This study aims to investigate vitamin D levels in Saudi autistic children and to find the role of vitamin D supplementation treatment in upregulating the expression of the OXTR gene. This study was conducted on 9 Saudi autistic children aged (4-12). Their vitamin D level was measured using ARCITECT ci8200, and the expression of the OXTR gene was analyzed using RT-qPCR. The results for vitamin D levels indicated that all the participants had vitamin D deficiency. After three months of vitamin D treatment, vitamin D reached normal levels. On the other hand, for OXTR expression level results. At first, 7 out of 9 patients showed downregulation in OXTR expression. After vitamin D treatment, the expression level for OXTR showed improvement and upregulation in 3 out of 9 patients. The findings of the current work hypothesized that vitamin D levels in ASD children are related to OXTR gene expression. these findings support the hypothesis that vitamin D deficiency may have an impact on the expression of the OXTR gene by downregulating it. In this work, no significant improvement (upregulation) in OXTR gene expression following vitamin D treatment was found. However, some samples showed an increase in the expression, which is a good indicator. The small sample size could have an impact on the findings. Therefore, future studies on the current topic particularly on OXTR gene regulation mechanisms are needed to investigate this correlation with increased samples. 
Supervisor : Dr. Sheren Ahmed Azhari 
Thesis Type : Master Thesis 
Publishing Year : 1444 AH
2023 AD 
Co-Supervisor : Dr. Reem Mamoun Farsi 
Added Date : Thursday, April 27, 2023 

Researchers

Researcher Name (Arabic)Researcher Name (English)Researcher TypeDr GradeEmail
آلاء حمود الزهرانيAlzahrani, Alaa HamoudResearcherMaster 

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