Posted 4/29/2016 9:16 PM (GMT -5)
Here is a new one for me:
http://www.gihealthfoundation.org/reuters/article.cfm?article=20160125pltl238393725&cat=pltl&dstate=IBD
Excerpts:
Dust mite allergen a possible player in intestinal disease
Last Updated: 2016-01-25
By Anne Harding
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - House dust mite (HDM) allergen promotes inflammation and gut permeability in humans, according to new findings.
"We show a new possible player in the pathophysiology of inflammatory gut disease," Dr. Valerie Verhasselt of the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis in Nice, France, told Reuters Health in a telephone interview. The findings were published online December 8 in Gut.
HDM is the main cause of asthma and other allergic respiratory disease. The main antigen from the common dust mite Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, the cysteine protease Der p1, has been shown to weaken tight junction (TJ) proteins in the respiratory epithelium, Dr. Verhasselt and her colleagues noted.
A similar breakdown in the human gastrointestinal tract epithelium has been found in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS), they added, but the triggers for this breakdown are unclear.
Adding HDM to biopsies of healthy gut tissue increased epithelial permeability, and also promoted production of tumor necrosis alpha and interleukin 10. HDM also disrupted epithelial TJ proteins, while cysteine protease inhibitor prevented HDM-induced inflammation and epithelial breakdown. Experiments in mice confirmed that HDM had a protease-dependent effect on colon permeability, and also revealed that HDM exposure weakened the mucus layer in the colon.
"You don't need to be allergic to react to house dust mite in your gut," Dr. Verhasselt said. However, she added, "if you are susceptible and already have some ongoing gut disease, you react more strongly to HDM than healthy people, and importantly you have a weaker counter-regulatory response."
"This study is the first evidence for a role for house dust mite allergens in intestinal disease," Dr. Manon Wildenberg, of the Tygat Institute for Liver and Intestinal Research at Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, told Reuters Health by email. "These allergens were previously only considered in pulmonary disease, but now prove to have broader effects."
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/1njnFLu and http://bit.ly/1PfP7om
Gut 2015.