Enhanced allergic sensitisation related to parental smoking.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the role of parental smoking in changes, after a four year interval , in the prevalence and severity of the atopic state in 166 preadolescent children. Allergy skin prick tests were related to parental smoking habits and their changes during this same interval.The total number of cigarettes smoked by parents decreased in 56 families while it increased in only 16. Boys had significantly more persistently positive skin tests and changed more frequently from negative to positive. The skin test index did not show significant changes in girls. This index did not change in children of persistent non-smokers or those starting to smoke during this period, while it increased among sons of those that quit smoking and of persistent smokers. This was not only due to those boys who became skin test positive during foliow up. When analysis was restricted to 14 boys who had been skin test positive in 1983 and whose parents were persistent smokers, the index increased in eight, remained unchanged in four, and decreased in only two.This report supports the hypothesis that parental smoking is a factor that, together with specific allergenic exposure, may enhance allergic sensitisation in children.ing, by increasing the risk of atopy, may increase the risk of asthma, particularly in their sons.2Little is known about longitudinal changes occurring in skin prick test reactivity during the preadolescent years. Barbee et al reported that, out of 70 subjects aged 6-14 years, 15 (21-4%) had converted from initial negative to positive after a mean of 8-1 years of follow up, while 27 (38-6%) remained consistently positive, and 28 (40%) remained consistently negative. No subject became skin test negative during this age interval.4 These investigators also reported that, paradoxically, total IgE concentrations decreased both in consistent atopic and consistent non-atopic subjects in this same age interval.5 Factors other than the direct genetic control of IgE concentrations may play a significant part in atopic sensitisation during this crucial period of life.The objective of this present study was to assess the role of parental smoking in changes of prevalence and severity of the atopic state in children originally enrolled at the age of 9 years. For this purpose we recalled, after a four year interval, the group of 166 subjects in whom these relationships had already been studied in 1983.2 Allergy skin prick tests were repeated and results were related to parental smoking habits during this same interval. When we studied a random sample of 166 children aged 9 years, we showed that the prevalence of atopy was significantly higher in the sons of smoking parents than in the sons of non-smoking parents. We also showed, again in boys, that a prick skin test index, calculated from the combined diameters of the weals elicited by the allergens, was correlated with the total number of cigarettes smoked by their parents. We hypothesised that parental smok-

Prenatal Environmental Tobacco Smoke Exposure Promotes Adult Atherogenesis and Mitochondrial Damage in Apolipoprotein E −/− Mice Fed a Chow Diet

“…Studies in adult female apoE Ϫ/Ϫ mice have shown that atherogenesis is accelerated with ETS exposure; however, these animals were also fed a high-fat (21%) diet. 25 Other studies have shown that males appear to be more sensitive to the effects of certain CVD risk factors (cigarette smoke and hypercholesterolemia) than females, 5,26 perhaps because of differences in immune response and/or hormonal effects. Studies have also shown that male apoE Ϫ/Ϫ mice have significantly more lesions than females when fed cholesterol-rich diets.…”

Formaldehyde exposure enhances inhalative allergic sensitization in the guinea pig

“…Air pollution has been previously shown to be associated with allergic sensitization in epidemiologic studies (6). Furthermore, in animal experiments, exposure to sulfur dioxide and ozone significantly enhanced allergic sensitization to inhaled allergens (7)(8)(9), and environmental tobacco smoke, which contains FA in higher concentrations, has been shown to increase the sensitization rate in children (22,23) and in experimental animal studies (21).…”

Length at Birth and Effect of Prenatal and Postnatal Factors on early Wheezing Phenotypes. Kraków Epidemiologic Cohort Study

“…Up to now, most of the epidemiologic research on early wheezing in childhood focused on maternal smoking in pregnancy, postnatal ETS, and other postnatal environmental insults [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. There are scarce studies reporting on the wheezing phenotypes related to prenatal exposure.…”