The study published by Chih-Mei Chen et al. in the May edition of the distinguished Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology did not approve earlier papers, according to which contact with cat allergens during the first few months of a child's life has a protective effect. The team of authors could even show that apart from keeping cats, even just repeated contact with cat hair within or outside the parental household increases the frequency of allergic sensitisation on the basis of the detection of IgE-specific antibodies against cat allergens.
The study is based on data of the multicentric LISA study. LISA stands for Lifestyle Immune - System Allergy and is intended to demonstrate the influence of lifestyle on the immune system and the development of allergic diseases in children. Apart from the GSF Research Center for Environment and Health (GSF) and the Centre for Environmental Research Halle Leipzig (UFZ), other university and clinical partners are also involved. In the framework of the study the parents of the children born between late 1997 and early 1999 were repeatedly questioned about different family and health parameters as well as the frequency of contact with cats and other pets.
The longitudinal analysis of the development of allergic sensitization due to contact with cats, as it has just been published, also relies on a house dust sample taken from the parental home three months after each child's birth, in which cat allergens were determined, as well as on the determination of the content of IgE antibodies to cat allergens in the children's blood. The blood tests were carried out at the age of two and six years.
Up to the age of two the scientists found clear connections between exposure to cat allergens at home and the frequency of allergic sensitisation. This connection was found to a lesser extent in six-year-old health outcomes "Contact with cat allergens at home does not have the main significance in this
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Contact: Heinz-Joerg Haury
haury@gsf.de
49-893-187-2460
GSF - National Research Center for Environment and Health
2-May-2007