Could platelet activating factor play a role in developmental dyslexia?

Post-mortem studies by Galaburda and colleagues on the brains of developmen tal dyslexics found characteristic neuronal abnormalities: ectopias, microg yria, and fewer large-soma cells in sensory thalamus. An association betwee n dyslexia and immune dysfunction has also been proposed. We describe a mec hanism which may explain these observations. Platelet-activating ng factor (PAF) is a pro-inflammatory lipid implicated in neurological disorders. We propose that PAF may also be involved in dyslexia. (C) 2001 Harcourt Publis hers Ltd.