Basic and clinical immunologyInfluence of early day-care exposure on total IgE levels through age 3 years
Section snippets
Study design and population
The Infant Immune Study is a prospective birth cohort study of immune system maturation and its relation to the development of asthma and allergic disease in childhood. Participants were healthy children born to pregnant women who planned to obtain care for their newborns from collaborating pediatricians. Women were contacted at 32 to 35 weeks' gestation to obtain informed consent and to begin data collection on maternal factors.
IgE measurements
Blood specimens were obtained at 3 months (n = 363; mean ± SD age,
Results
IgE levels were assessed at least once in 434 children. Compared with subjects for whom IgE data were not obtained at any age (n = 50), these children were significantly more likely to have received some human milk at 3 months (68.6% vs 31.0%, P < .001), less likely to have smoking mothers at 3 months (7.8% vs 20.0%, P = .022), more likely to have 2 non-Hispanic white parents (60.5% vs 35.4%, P = .001), and more likely to have older parents (mothers' mean age, 29.2 vs 26.2 years [P = .001]
Discussion
This study indicates that day-care exposure by 3 months of age is associated with decreased total and allergen-specific IgE levels through age 3 years. The relation between day care and total IgE level was consistent for each time point assessed (3 months and 1, 2, and 3 years), in longitudinal analysis including all time points, and after adjusting for potential confounders. Day-care attendance outside the home showed a stronger relation to decreased total IgE levels than did exposure to day
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2022, Cell Reports MedicineCitation Excerpt :Variables were related to this functional data using adonis2 and a P-value threshold of 0.05. For analysis of metagenomic data, total IgE was dichotomized into below normal range (<2 kU/L) and detectable (range: 4.5–14 kU/L), as previously described91 due to sample size limitations (n = 12 dyads). Random forests analysis from the RandomForests package (v4.6.14) was used to identify IgE-discriminatory MetaCyc reactions using classification.
Does epigenetics play a role in human asthma?
2016, Allergology InternationalCitation Excerpt :Indeed, the link between environmental exposures, epigenetic marks and immune phenotypes appears to be robust.38 Several such birth cohorts [e.g., the Tucson Infant Immune Study (IIS),39 the Wisconsin Childhood Origins of ASThma (COAST) study,40 the Danish Copenhagen Prospective Study of Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC)41 and COPSAC2000,41 the UK Manchester Asthma and Allergy Study (MAAS),42 the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) cohort43] already exist, and research along these lines is already beginning. Because the unique time- and environment-dependent nature of epigenetic marks appears better suited for the analysis of prenatal and early post-natal trajectories to disease than for conventional, static assessments of disease risk, we expect this second generation of epigenetic studies will avoid most of the early pitfalls, and will return exciting results that will begin to highlight the role of epigenetics in asthma and allergic disease pathogenesis.
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2014, Annals of Allergy, Asthma and ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :The authors consider these results consistent with their finding, although compared with single cytokines, TH1/TH2 cytokine ratios appeared more informative in the present study but were not reported in the Australian study. Others groups also have noted the importance of considering cytokine combination patterns in asthma research.51 In a subsequent report from the same investigative group, a larger population-based cohort of 1,380 Australian teenagers (mean age 14.1 years) was evaluated.27
Maternal microchimerism protects against the development of asthma
2013, Journal of Allergy and Clinical ImmunologyEffect of prenatal indoor pet exposure on the trajectory of total IgE levels in early childhood
2011, Journal of Allergy and Clinical ImmunologyCitation Excerpt :By using a random-effects model, the Tucson Children’s Respiratory Study showed trends of general increase through childhood that were affected by breast-feeding and maternal total IgE levels, but there was only 1 postnatal data collection point in infancy.26 Most relevant are the results from Rothers et al27 from another Tucson-based birth cohort. Using samples collected at 3 months and 1, 2, and 3 years of age in a cohort of 362 children and again deploying a random-effects model, they reported that day care attendance by age 3 months was associated with decreased total IgE levels, although only among children whose mothers were atopic, asthmatic, or both, another example of effect modification.
Supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (AI 42268 and AI61811) and the Arizona Disease Control Research Commission.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: The authors have declared that they have no conflict of interest.