TY - JOUR T1 - Respiratory health in children and indoor exposure to (1,3)-β-D-glucan, EPS mould components, and endotoxin JF - European Respiratory Journal JO - Eur Respir J DO - 10.1183/09031936.00091210 SP - erj00912-2010 AU - C. Tischer AU - U. Gehring AU - C-M. Chen AU - M. Kerkhof AU - G. Koppelman AU - S. Sausenthaler AU - O. Herbarth AU - B. Schaaf AU - I. Lehmann AU - U. Krämer AU - D. Berdel AU - A. von Berg AU - C.P. Bauer AU - S. Koletzko AU - H-E. Wichmann AU - B. Brunekreef AU - J. Heinrich Y1 - 2010/01/01 UR - http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/early/2010/08/20/09031936.00091210.abstract N2 - For a long time, exposure to mould and dampness derived microbial components was considered as risk factor for the development of respiratory diseases and symptoms. Some recent studies suggested that early childhood exposure to mould components such as (1,3)-β-D-glucan and Extracellular Polysaccharides (EPS) may protect children from developing allergy.We investigated the association of the exposure to (1,3)-β-D-glucan, EPS as well as endotoxin on asthma and allergies in 6 year old children.This investigation is the follow-up of an originally nested case-control study among three European birth cohorts. Children from two ongoing birth cohort studies performed in Germany (n=358) and one in The Netherlands (n=338) were selected. Levels of (1,3)-β-D-glucan, EPS and endotoxin were measured in settled house dust sampled from children's mattress and living-room floor, when the children were on average 5 years old. At the age of 6 years, health outcome information was available for 678 children.In the two German subsets, domestic EPS and endotoxin exposure from children's mattresses was significantly negatively associated with physician-diagnosed asthma (OR (95% Confidence Interval per IQR increase), 0.60(0.39–0.92) and 0.55(0.31–0.97), respectively). In addition, EPS exposure was inversely related to physician-diagnosed allergic rhinitis (0.50(0.31–0.81)). For the Dutch population, no associations were observed between exposure to microbial agents and respiratory health outcomes.We found inverse associations between domestic exposure to EPS and endotoxin from children's mattresses and doctor-diagnosed asthma and rhinitis in German but not in Dutch school children. The reasons for the differences between countries are not clear. ER -