Figure 2

Aconitase activity is decreased in autism cerebellum (CB) and associated with glutathione redox/antioxidant capacity (GSH/GSSG) in control and autism CB, and Brodmann area 22 (BA22). (a) Aconitase activity was measured in frozen post-mortem autism and control tissue samples from CB and BA22 (n=15 and 12 cases and controls/group, respectively), and normalized for protein content. Data are presented as mean±s.d. Aconitase activity was significantly decreased in autism CB (3.99±2.34) compared with control CB (7.29±1.85). The difference in aconitase activity between autism BA22 (3.30±1.88) and control BA22 (5.47±3.78) did not reach significance. (b) In the combined case and control cohort of samples from the CB, aconitase activity was significantly associated with GSH/GSSG (P=0.01). (c) Within BA22 in the combined case and control samples, aconitase activity was similarly significantly associated with GSH/GSSG (P=0.03). Although the significance of the correlations does not hold within the autism samples, the sample-specific clustering of case values (in open circles) in the bottom left quadrant of each graph is apparent. ^*P<0.01.