Relationship between Food Allergy and Endotoxin Concentration and the Toleration Status at 2 Years: The Japan Environment and Children’s Study

Abstract

Changes in household endotoxin concentration may affect the prognosis of food allergy (FA), but data on the association between household endotoxin concentration and an already-developed FA are scarce. Thus, we investigated the association between environmental endotoxin exposure and tolerance to hen’s egg (HE) and cow’s milk (CM) using data from children participating in the Japan Environment and Children’s Study who had HE allergies (n = 204) and CM allergy (n = 72) in their first year of life. We grouped the endotoxin results into quartiles 1–4 (Q1–Q4). In children with HE allergy and with CM allergy, there was no significant difference in the prevalence of tolerance to HE and CM at 2 years old when comparing endotoxin levels of the children in Q1 with those in Q2, Q3, and Q4, respectively. However, subgroup analyses by the presence of eczema and causal foods revealed that children in Q1 had a lower prevalence of tolerance to foods in some subgroup analyses and lower causal allergen-specific immunoglobulin G4 levels. Although an individually based approach against endotoxin according to background characteristics, such as eczema and causal foods, is necessary, preventing excessive endotoxin removal might contribute to FA resolution in some children.