The notion that some level of microbial exposure might reduce our risk of developing allergies has arisen over the last few decades and has been termed the hygiene hypothesis. Now, an article published in Science Immunology by researchers from Karolinska Institutet challenges this hypothesis by showing that mice with high infectious exposures from birth have the same, if not an even greater ability to develop allergic immune responses than ‘clean’ laboratory mice.
How microbes may prevent allergy has been a topic of great interest in recent times. Studies have suggested that certain infections might reduce the production of inflammatory antibodies to allergens and alter the behavior of T cells involved in allergies. It has also been suggested that good bacteria in our intestines may be able to switch off inflammation in other parts of our body.
Robust allergic responses
Researchers have now compared the allergic immune response in ‘dirty’ wildling mice to those of typical clean laboratory mice. They found very little evidence that the antibody response was altered or that the function of T cells changed in a meaningful way. Nor did anti-inflammatory responses evoked by good gut bacteria appear to be capable of switching off the allergic immune response. On the contrary, wildling mice developed robust signs of pathological inflammation and allergic responses when exposed to allergens.
This was a little unexpected but suggests that it’s not as simple as saying, ‘dirty lifestyles will stop allergies while clean lifestyles may set them off’. There are probably