Genetic Analysis of UGT1A1 Polymorphisms Using Preserved Dried Umbilical Cord for Assessing the Potential of Neonatal Jaundice as a Risk Factor for Autism Spectrum Disorder in Children.

Horinouchi et al. (2022) looked at DNA from dried umbilical cords. They checked for UGT1A1 gene changes that slow bilirubin breakdown.

The team compared children with autism to children without autism. They wanted to see if jaundice-linked genes raised autism risk.

The gene variants showed no link to autism diagnosis. Jaundice-related UGT1A1 patterns did not predict who later had ASD.

Symptom severity scores were also the same between groups. In short, the cord test gave no useful autism signal.

Robinson et al. (2011) pooled 13 older studies and saw a small rise in autism odds after jaundice. Tomoko’s new case-control data sits inside that review and updates it with a null result.

Lee et al. (2022) tracked a whole Taiwanese birth cohort the same year. They still found jaundice raised autism odds. The clash likely comes from study design: the cohort mixed many perinatal factors, while Tomoko zeroed in only on UGT1A1 genetics.

Piwowarczyk et al. (2020) also tested archived newborn blood spots and found no autism link with fatty acids. Together these papers show that easy early biospecimens rarely give clear autism markers.

You can stop worrying about UGT1A1 cord tests for autism risk. Keep watching any baby who had severe jaundice, but don’t flag them extra based on this gene alone. Focus your surveillance time on skills screening, not on chasing this biomarker.