PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Susanne Rompa
AU  - Tobias Janke
AU  - Karin Schwaiger
AU  - Melanie Mayer
AU  - Johann Bauer
AU  - Jon Genuneit
AU  - Charlotte Braun-Fahrländer
AU  - Elisabeth Horak
AU  - Andrzej Boznanski
AU  - Erika Von Mutius
AU  - Markus Ege
TI  - Association of childhood asthma and fungal taxa in environmental dust samples
DP  - 2014 Sep 01
TA  - European Respiratory Journal
PG  - P4239
VI  - 44
IP  - Suppl 58
4099  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4239.short
4100  - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/44/Suppl_58/P4239.full
SO  - Eur Respir J2014 Sep 01; 44
AB  - We have previously found an inverse association of childhood asthma and fungal diversity by classical culturing (Ege et al. NEJM 2011;364:701-9), which covers only a small minority of taxa.The aim of the present analysis was to include also non-cultivable fungi by a molecular technique. For this purpose we applied single strand conformation polymorphism polymerase chain reaction (SSCP-PCR) targeting the internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) of fungi (Janke et al. Curr Microbiol 2013;67:156-69).We used data from the GABRIELA study and analysed mattress dust samples from 844 Bavarian children age 6-10 years. DNA was extracted from dust samples, and the fungus-specific ITS region was amplified by PCR. The amplicons were subjected to non-denaturing gel-electrophoresis, and the resulting band patterns were digitized and normalized. We applied a factor analysis for the identification of the relevant gel positions and explored associations with a lifetime physician's diagnosis of asthma by multiple logistic regression models adjusted for potential confounders.We identified 7 out of 134 positions that were significantly associated with asthma, 2 in a positive and 5 in an inverse direction. One position, inversely correlated to asthma (aOR=0.81 [0.66-0.99], p=0.041), contained the DNA-sequences of the fungal species Exophiala sp., Penicillium sp., Glyphium elatum, Aureobasidium pullulans, and Phialophora europaea. The other positions could not yet be referred to specific species.Though moulds particularly in the context of dampness are well-known asthma risk factors, distinct fungal taxa might exert beneficial effects on respiratory health. The mechanisms have to be addressed in experimental settings.