Barn dust protects children from allergies

Barn dust protects children in the countryside from allergies. The question of why children in rural areas are less affected by allergies than city children seems to be solved.

(19.07.2010) Scientists have discovered why children in rural areas are generally less affected by allergies and asthma than children in the city. Sugar molecules in food plants may strengthen the immune system.

On average, children in the city are more likely to suffer from allergies and asthma than older children in the city. To find out the background of this connection, researchers have investigated this question from Bochum, Munich and Borstel. So far, physicians and researchers have always assumed that children in rural areas more likely to come into contact with germs, as other children. This would strengthen the immune system from the start. This assumption is not entirely wrong, as the researchers now found out.

The scientists of the Ruhr University Bochum discovered a sugar molecule in feed plants, that the immune system prevents an overreaction. This is the case if the children already inhale the molecules in the first year of life in high concentration. The substance is called "arabinogalactan" and is thus a so-called protective substance. Arabinogalactan occurs in large concentrations in animal feed plants. One of these fodder plants with the protective substance is the meadow foxtail.

For the test series, the researchers tested in mice how they react to the sugar molecules of the meadow foxtail. It showed that the sugar molecule significantly weakens the immune reaction of the cells. But it depends on the amount of administered dose. As the Bochum researcher Marcus Peters said: "In small concentrations, the pollens of the meadow foxtail can cause allergies, in large doses and very early in life (the children) but also prevent."

Now, the scientists want to clarify in further test series, whether Arabinogalaktan can also be used to prevent allergies. So it would be conceivable that these sugar molecules could be used as a nasal spray against allergies and asthma diseases. (Sb)

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