Environmental and occupational diseaseIndoor bacterial microbiota and development of asthma by 10.5 years of age
Section snippets
Methods
The study population consisted of children born in middle and eastern Finland: the first half of the study population (n = 214) belonged to a European birth cohort (Protection Against Allergy Study in Rural Environments [PASTURE])18 among farmers and nonfarmers, whereas the second half of the cohort consisted of unselected children (n = 228).19 Pregnant women who gave birth between September 2002 and May 2005 were recruited. The selection procedure has been described earlier, and the study
Results
Of the 442 children, 394 (89.1%) had data on the bacterial microbiota in dust samples, and 373 (94.6%) of those had sufficient data to assess asthma until the age of 10.5 years and information on covariates. By the age of 10.5 years, 69 (18.5%) children had ever asthma, and 29 (7.8%) had current asthma at 10.5 years.
Discussion
The present study suggests that phylogenetic differences in the early home indoor microbiota composition precede asthma development, and this association is not explained by bacterial richness alone. Of 658 genera detected in dust samples, only the relative abundance of Lactococcus genus was determined as an independent risk factor for asthma. Twelve bacterial genera (mostly from the order Actinomycetales) were identified as protective. The sum of the relative abundance of these 12 protective
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Cited by (0)
Supported by research grants from the Academy of Finland (grants 139021, 287675, 296814, 296817, and 308254), the Juho Vainio Foundation, the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, the Foundation for Pediatric Research, EVO/VTR-funding, the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, the European Union (QLK4-CT-2001-00250), and the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland.
Disclosure of potential conflict of interest: A. M. Karvonen and J. Pekkanen report grants from the Academy of Finland, the Juho Vainio Foundation, the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, the Foundation for Pediatric Research, EVO/VTR-funding, the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, the Finnish Cultural Foundation, and the European Union during the conduct of the study. P. V. Kirjavainen reports grants from Päivikki and the Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation, the Nutricia Research Foundation, the Juho Vainio Foundation, and the Academy of Finland during the conduct of the study. E. von Mutius reports grants from the European Commission during the conduct of the study and personal fees from PharmaVentures, OM Pharma, Decision Resources, Novartis Pharma SAS (Rueil-Malmaison, France), the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the University of Copenhagen, HAL Allergie GmbH, Ökosoziales Forum Oberösterreich, Mundipharma, the American Thoracic Society, AbbVie Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG, the University of Tampere, the European Commission, the Massachusetts Medical Society, and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology outside the submitted work; also, E. von Mutius is listed as inventor on the patents “Composition containing bacterial antigens used for the prophylaxis and the treatment of allergic diseases” (publication no. EP 1411977), “Stable dust extract for allergy protection” (publication no. EP1637147), “Pharmaceutical compound to protect against allergies and inflammatory diseases” (publication no. EP 1964570), and “Barn dust extract for the prevention and treatment of diseases” (application no. LU101064 [pending], and she is listed as inventor and has received royalties on the patent “Specific environmental bacteria for the protection from and/or the treatment of allergic, chronic inflammatory and/or autoimmune disorders” (publication no. EP2361632). The rest of the authors declare that they have no relevant conflicts of interest.