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A single sperm donor is the biological father of at least 12 children who have all developed autism – an extraordinary case that prompted a woman to sue her sperm bank, according to reports in the press.
The case was revealed when the woman, Danielle Rizzo of Illinois, was looking for treatment for her two sons, both autistic, according to the same source. The Washington Post. Both sons were conceived with sperm from the same donor and Rizzo was shocked to discover that other mothers who used the same donor also had autistic sons, the newspaper reported.
Rizzo was told that the likelihood that all these related children would be autism by chance was as if all mothers "opened a dictionary and pointed to the same letter of the same word on the same page at the same time", she declared to the Post Office.
This means that a mutation in the sperm of the donor was probably responsible. But is there a single "autism gene?"
In short, no: there are hundreds of genetic variations related to autism spectrum disorders, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In most cases, these mutations increase the risk of autism in a person, but they do not let someone develop the disease. In other words, genes usually play only a partial role in the risk of developing autism, and environmental factors, such as the age of parents and complications to birth, also contribute to it.
But in rare cases, genetic mutations would be the leading cause of autism. According to the NIH, only about 2% to 4% of people with autism exhibit these mutations.
"We call autism one thing, but each person is different.In some cases, everything is a question of genes.In some cases, it is a combination of genes and l & # 39; In some cases, this is unknown, "said Dr. Wendy Chung, a professor of pediatric medicine. at Columbia University, told the post.
Studies on Rizzo's children revealed that they had two mutations linked to autism in genes called MBD1 and SHANK1.
Most procreation clinics test several hundred genetic diseases, but there is no autism test, reported The Post.
In Rizzo's case, she alleged that the donor's profile contained false information. For example, she stated that the donor did not have a university degree, as the profile shows, and that he had been diagnosed with ADHD, who was left out of the profile, reported the post. She settled the lawsuit in March for $ 250,000.
Learn more about the case at The Washington Post.
Originally published on Science live.
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