Clinical and biological diagnosis in food allergy

The ex vivo study of synergistic effects of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, benzo(a)pyrene with ovalbumin on systemic immune responses by oral route

“…The ability of DEP to induce oral immunization also suggests that they may in part contribute to food allergy. It was previously shown that air-born pollution might be associated with increased incidence of atopy (Rusznak et al, 1994) and that 5-6% of atopic patients were linked to food allergy (Sabbah et al, 1997). Oral administration of HEL and DEP seems to more efficiently induce Th2 CD4 + T-cell-mediated immune responses than Th1 helper T-cell-mediated responses, since much greater production of anti-HEL IgG1 antibodies that is dependent on Th2 cells (Estes et al, 1995;Jain et al, 1996) was observed in mice given 0.01 and 0.1 mg of DEP compared with anti-HEL IgG2a antibody production that was Th1-cell-dependent (Finkelman et al, 1988;Snapper and Paul, 1987).…”