Aspergillus fumigatus, an opportunistic fungal pathogen, is responsible for multiple airway diseases of an allergic and a nonallergic nature. In a murine model of invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, resistance is associated with a decreased lung inflammatory pathology and the occurrence of an IL-12-dependent Th1-type reactivity that are both impaired by IL-4. In the present study we assess the ab...

BACKGROUND Genome-wide association studies have identified the ORM (yeast)-like protein isoform 3 (ORMDL3) gene locus on human chromosome 17q to be a highly significant risk factor for childhood-onset asthma. OBJECTIVE We sought to investigate in vivo the functional role of ORMDL3 in disease inception. METHODS An Ormdl3-deficient mouse was generated and the role of ORMDL3 in the generation ...

BACKGROUND Clothing has been proposed as an additional source of exposure to mite and cat allergens. Dispersal of allergen into public places has also been attributed to clothing. OBJECTIVES We sought to study the contribution of various types of clothing on mite and cat exposure in a domestic environment. Also, we studied the ability of clothing to transfer allergen in a workplace. METHODS...

BACKGROUND Allergen Immunotherapy is a promising treatment of allergy. Seven patients with rhinoconjunctivitis to grass allergen were treated with intralymphatic immunotherapy (ILIT) to explore whether this treatment could be performed. Effect of treatment was assessed as change in symptom medication score, response in skin prick test and nasal allergen provocation. ILIT deposits allergen in an...

In areas with low house dust mite (HDM) allergen exposure, both mite sensitization and asthma prevalence are low. In most other areas, HDM allergen exposure is higher than the threshold for sensitization. In this setting, is HDM allergen exposure a factor which is causally related to the development of asthma in HDM-sensitive individuals? To answer this question, the cumulative prevalence of as...

The Prevention and Incidence of Asthma and Mite Allergy (PIAMA) study is a birth cohort study that investigates the influence of allergen exposure on the development of allergy and asthma in the first several years of life. The objectives of this study were to investigate the relationship between a family history of allergy and/or asthma and exposure of newborn children to mite and pet allergen...

Previous activation of effector Th2 cells is central to the development of allergic inflammatory responses. We have observed that priming of allergen-specific Th2 cells in C57BL/6 or B10.A mice with allergen delivered via the i.p. or s.c. routes results in very different outcomes following subsequent airway exposure to the same allergen. Systemic allergen immunization (via the i.p. route) resul...

BACKGROUND Allergen molecule-based diagnosis has been suggested to facilitate the identification of disease-causing allergen sources and the prescription of allergen-specific immunotherapy (AIT). The aim of the current study was to compare allergen molecule-based IgE serology with allergen extract-based skin testing for the identification of the disease-causing allergen sources. The study was c...

BACKGROUND Natural allergen contact induces an increase of IgE levels and sensitivity but the mechanisms underlying the allergen-specific memory responses are poorly understood. Furthermore, it has not been studied whether allergen exposure affects the molecular reactivity profiles in patients. The aim of this study was to analyze the influence of nasal allergen encounter on the molecular profi...

The development of reliable and clinically relevant potency assays is essential to the practice of safe and effective allergen-specific immunotherapy. Allergen standardization in the United States is based on the establishment of a national reference assigned with a biological potency unit to which manufacturers' products are compared using validated relative potency assays. This ensures, at le...