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Strategies to prevent early-life food allergen sensitisation prior to commencement of solid foods are needed and should be the focus of future research
Elevated egg-specific Th2 cytokine responses were established prior to egg ingestion at 4months and were not significantly altered by introduction of egg
The dramatic rise in early childhood allergic diseases indicates the specific vulnerability of the immune system to early life environmental changes.
Debbie Susan Palmer Prescott BSc BND PhD MBBS BMedSci PhD FRACP Head, Nutrition in Early Life Honorary Research Fellow debbie.palmer@uwa.edu.au
Previous reports suggested that food proteins present in human milk (HM) may trigger symptoms in allergic children during breastfeeding, but existing evidence has never been reviewed systematically.
Associations between the human gut microbiome and health outcomes continues to be of great interest, although fecal sample collection methods which impact microbiome studies are sometimes neglected. Here, we expand on previous work in sample optimization, to promote high quality microbiome data. To compare fecal sample collection methods, amplicons from the bacterial 16S rRNA gene (V4) and fungal (ITS2) region, as well as short chain fatty acid (SCFA) concentrations were determined in fecal material over three timepoints.
Egg allergy affects almost 1 in 10 Australian infants. Early egg introduction has been associated with a reduced risk in developing egg allergy; however, the immune mechanisms underlying this protection remain unclear.
Meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials have found that introducing eggs and peanuts earlier during infancy reduced egg and peanut allergy risk. Hence, infant feeding advice has dramatically changed from previous recommendations of avoidance to current recommendations of inclusion of common food allergens in infant diets.
Early infancy is a critical period for immune development. In addition to being the primary food source during early infancy, human milk also provides multiple bioactive components that shape the infant gut microbiome and immune system and provides a constant source of exposure to maternal microbiota. Given the potential interplay between allergic diseases and the human microbiome, this study aimed to characterise the milk microbiome of allergic mothers.
A mother's diet during pregnancy may influence her infant's immune development. However, as potential interactions between components of our dietary intakes can make any nutritional analysis complex, here we took a multi-component dietary analysis approach.