Bugs help mothers protect kids from allergies
December 28th, 2009 - 12:57 pm ICT by IANSWashington, Dec 28 (IANS) A pregnant woman’s exposure to bugs may protect her child from developing allergies later in life, says a new study.
Researchers find that exposure to environmental bacteria triggers a mild inflammatory response in pregnant mice that renders their offspring resistant to allergies.
A new study conducted by Harald Renz and colleagues at the Phillips-University of Marburg in Germany, found that pregnant mice exposed to inhaled barnyard microbes gave birth to allergy-resistant offspring.
The progressive rise in allergies in the past several decades is often attributed to an increasing tendency to keep kids too clean — a theory known as the hygiene hypothesis.
According to this belief, exposure of young children to microbes conditions the developing immune system to tolerate microbes and allergens later in life.
Studies have shown, for example, that children raised on farms, which teem with microbes, developed fewer allergies than those raised in cities or non-farming rural regions, says a Phillips-University of Marburg release.
But it may not be the kids’ exposure that counts; children of farming mothers are also less susceptible to allergies regardless of their own exposure. But the biological mechanisms behind this phenomenon were a mystery.
The study was published online in the Journal of Experimental Medicine.
- Pregnant mums' exposure to microbes may protect kids from allergies - Dec 08, 2009
- Prenatal exposure could protect kids from allergies later in life - Jul 14, 2010
- Blame your gut for your skin allergies - May 03, 2011
- Biodiversity loss can trigger rising allergy levels - May 08, 2012
- Kids with less Vitamin D more likely to have allergies - Feb 25, 2011
- Delayed symptoms ravage asthmatics - Aug 14, 2011
- Kids with food allergies may feel unsafe at school - Jan 30, 2011
- Cell component that triggers cat allergy identified - Mar 10, 2011
- Pet allergies make hay fever worse: Study - Sep 29, 2010
- Kids born to smoking mums 'more likely to become smokers' - Mar 22, 2011
- Cutting kids' exposure to several allergens may help prevent asthma - Jul 08, 2009
- Exposure to worm infection in the womb 'cuts eczema risk' - Jan 29, 2011
- Kids in mouldy homes more at risk of asthma - Aug 04, 2011
- Sunshine likely to protect kids from eczema - Feb 05, 2012
- Does dad's stress affect his kids? - Sep 01, 2011
Tags: allergens, allergies, allergy, barnyard, biological mechanisms, environmental bacteria, hygiene hypothesis, immune system, inflammatory response, journal of experimental medicine, microbes, phenomenon, phillips university, pregnant mice, pregnant woman, progressive rise, renz, resistant offspring, study researchers, university of marburg