THE ESSENTIAL
- A study carried out in Denmark on 685 three parent-child shows that children whose mothers suffer from asthma or allergies are at higher risk of developing these chronic diseases, especially during their infancy.
- According to the researchers, this allergic and asthma awareness is not linked to genetic factors, but to pregnancy.
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Are children whose parents suffer from allergies and / or asthma more at risk of developing these pathologies? In any case, this is the conclusion reached by researchers from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). In a study published in the journal Clinical & Experimental Allergy, they demonstrate that, compared to the father’s traits linked to allergies and asthma, the mother’s traits create a higher risk that the child develops an allergy and / or asthma in early childhood. According to them, this suggests that non-genetic factors related to mothers, including pregnancy, may confer an additional risk of allergies and asthma on children.
A large cohort study
Affecting around 10% of children, asthma is a chronic respiratory disease which is characterized by inflammation of the lining of the bronchi. This inflammation then results in hyperreactivity of their muscle wall, which is most often manifested by wheezing, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath or else by a cough. These signs occur in acute attacks, more readily at night, and the first manifestations most often occur in children.
To understand the specific effects of parents on the risk of develop allergic and asthma awareness During childhood, the researchers selected 685 three parent-child members of the Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood 2010 cohort (COPSAC2010). The parents’ asthma was assessed by interviews and the child’s asthma was diagnosed prospectively during regular clinic visits up to the age of 6 years.
Levels of specific immunoglobulin E (igE) and total IgE were measured in parents and children at the age of six months, 1.5 years and 6 years. IgE are antibodies produced by plasma cells following contact with an allergen. The associations between the characteristics of the illnesses of the parents and of the children were then analyzed using a model of general estimation equations adjusted for breastfeeding and smoking during the third trimester.
A higher risk linked to the mother
It was then found that the risk of elevation of specific IgE in children was higher in the mother than in the father between 0 and 6 years. In addition, the researchers found that a high level of total IgE in the mother also increased the risk of high total IgE in the child. Individual time point analyzes showed that the maternal effect was strongest at the start of life, while the parental effects were comparable at the age of 6 years.
These results therefore suggest that the non-genetic factors of the mother, and particularly during life in utero, seem to confer an additional risk of illness on the child during his early childhood.
“This study is in addition to the growing body of evidence linking the period of pregnancy to illness in early childhood. We find this discovery very interesting, because it bypasses all known or unknown genetic factors that could add to the heritability of asthma and allergies ”, says Hans Bisgaard, lead author of the study and professor of pediatrics at the University of Copenhagen.
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