TY - JOUR T1 - Indoor bacteria and asthma in adults: a multicentre case–control study within ECRHS II JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/13993003.01241-2017 VL - 51 IS - 2 SP - 1701241 AU - Juha Pekkanen AU - Maria Valkonen AU - Martin Täubel AU - Christina Tischer AU - Hanna Leppänen AU - Päivi M. Kärkkäinen AU - Helena Rintala AU - Jan-Paul Zock AU - Lidia Casas AU - Nicole Probst-Hensch AU - Bertil Forsberg AU - Mathias Holm AU - Christer Janson AU - Isabelle Pin AU - Thorarinn Gislason AU - Debbie Jarvis AU - Joachim Heinrich AU - Anne Hyvärinen Y1 - 2018/02/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/51/2/1701241.abstract N2 - Both protective and adverse effects of indoor microbial exposure on asthma have been reported, but mostly in children. To date, no study in adults has used non-targeted methods for detection of indoor bacteria followed by quantitative confirmation.A cross-sectional study of 198 asthmatic and 199 controls was conducted within the European Community Respiratory Health Survey (ECRHS) II. DNA was extracted from mattress dust for bacterial analysis using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Selected bands were sequenced and associations with asthma confirmed with four quantitative PCR (qPCR) assays.15 out of 37 bands detected with DGGE, which had at least a suggestive association (p<0.25) with asthma, were sequenced. Of the four targeted qPCRs, Clostridium cluster XI confirmed the protective association with asthma. The association was dose dependent (aOR 0.43 (95% CI 0.22–0.84) for the fourth versus first quartile, p for trend 0.009) and independent of other microbial markers. Few significant associations were observed for the three other qPCRs used.In this large international study, the level of Clostridium cluster XI was independently associated with a lower risk of prevalent asthma. Results suggest the importance of environmental bacteria also in adult asthma, but need to be confirmed in future studies.Microbial exposures at home may also protect from asthma in adults, not only in children http://ow.ly/7cnI30hzSox ER -