Embryonic origin of two ASD subtypes of social symptom severity: the larger the brain cortical organoid size, the more severe the social symptoms.
Eric Courchesne, Vani Taluja, Sanaz Nazari and 18 others
PMID 38790065WHAT IT FOUND
Brain organoids grown from just ten autistic toddlers were larger when the child had more severe social symptoms.
This links embryonic cell growth patterns to later autism severity in a tiny sample, offering a biological clue rather than a clinical test.
Key findings
01The size of brain organoids derived from the children's stem cells correlated with the severity of their social symptoms, with larger organoids associated with more severe symptoms.
02Children classified as having clinically severe autism had organoids that were significantly larger than those of children with clinically mild autism and controls.
03Organoids from the severe group showed accelerated growth and higher proportions of mature neurons, suggesting faster differentiation or survival during early development.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The sample size is extremely small (10 children with ASD), which limits the generalizability of the findings. The study is observational and correlational; it does not prove that organoid size causes autism severity. The link between lab-grown organoids and actual human brain development is complex and not fully understood. The study did not include a clinical intervention or test how these findings could be used for diagnosis or treatment in practice. The 'severe' and 'mild' subtypes were defined by clinical scores, but the biological mechanisms separating them are not yet clear.
Declared interests
The authors received funding from the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders, the Hartwell Foundation, the National Institutes of Health, Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, the European Research Council, CAPES-Print, and the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine. No conflicts of interest were declared.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this as evidence that brain organoid size can diagnose autism or predict a child's outcome. This is a biological hypothesis-generating study with only 10 participants. It shows a correlation in a lab model, not a causal mechanism in humans, and has no current clinical application.