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Expectant Mother's Asthma and Hay Fever May Cause Newborn Eczema: Presented at ATS

By Mike Fillon
Special to DG News

ATLANTA, GA -- May 20, 2002 -- Infant have nearly twice as great a risk of developing eczema if their mothers had asthma or hay fever during their pregnancy.

Margaret Kurzius-Spencer, MS, MPH, senior research specialist at the Arizona Respiratory Center, University of Arizona, in Tucson, Arizona, United States, presented the findings here Sunday at ATS 2002, the American Thoracic Society's 98^th International Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

"Other studies have shown immune factors of expectant mothers can be passed on to infants," Kurzius-Spencer told Doctor's Guide. We were looking at maternal and prenatal factors that might be involved in development of eczema during the first year of life."

The researchers enrolled more than 300 randomly selected expectant mothers in a prospective study of infant immune development. At enrollment, mothers indicated whether they had allergies and what kind. After giving birth, participants completed a questionnaire, indicating whether their infants had eczema during the first year of life.

At the time of enrollment, blood samples from mothers were taken and repeated at two months postpartum. Infant blood samples were drawn at birth and again at two months of age. Serum samples were assayed for immunoglobulin E (IgE) by Auto-Cap. Cytokine production was assessed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) following PBMC stimulation with ConA/PMA.

Prenatal immunological profiles of mothers whose children developed eczema were significantly different from those whose children did not develop eczema; with non-asthmatic mothers showing the biggest differences. However, the researchers found that infant bouts of eczema were nearly twice as common in children whose mothers had asthma (59 vs. 31 percent) or hay fever (43 vs. 28 percent). They also found that cytokine levels in cord blood at two months of age and in mothers postpartum were not significantly associated with eczema during the first year of life.

Kurzius-Spencer said while the results show maternal immune factors in pregnancy may influence the development of eczema and immune profiles during infancy through genetic and/or environmental pathways, they do not have a complete understanding of why this is the case.

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