Researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute have discovered a unique pattern of immune activation that can occur at birth that is connected to a higher risk of babies developing food allergies as they grow older. The finding could help scientists develop treatments to prevent or minimize the downsides brought on by childhood food allergies.
"We found a link between children who had hyperactive immune cells at birth and the development of allergies to milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat and other common foods in their first years of life," said Len Harrison, who led the research along with Yuxia Zhang, in a press release.
"In at-risk babies, immune cells called monocytes were activated before or during birth," added Zhang. "Signals from these cells encouraged the development of immune responses by specialized immune cells called T cells that were predisposed to cause allergic reactions to some foods."
The team used food allergy information gathered from the Barwon Infant Study (BIS), which observed over 1,000 pregnant women and their babies and examined immunity, allergy, respiratory, cardiovascular and neurological development.
In recent years, there has been a three-fold increase in hospital visits stemming from food allergies and this increase is mostly by children under 5 years of age. Although it is still not known why this increase in food allergies has occurred, the study reveals that babies who develop food allergies are "primed" for the disease at birth.
The next step for the team is to identify the underlying cause of the hyperactive immune cells that stimulate allergies.
"Are the immune cells inherently activated because of the baby's genes or do they become activated at the time of birth or earlier in pregnancy, and how?" asked Harrison. "This study really emphasizes how critical it is to look at pregnancy and early life to really understand why chronic immune and inflammatory disorders such as allergies develop in childhood and later."
The findings were published in the Jan. 13 issue of Science Translational Medicine.
