The Potential of Maternal Dietary Modification for Prevention of Food Allergy

Abstract

Effective primary preventions strategies aimed at reducing the onset of IgE sensitization are urgently needed as the incidence of childhood food allergy keeps increasing.Studies eliminating food allergens during pregnancy have failed to show reduction in the prevalence of long-term IgE-mediated food allergy in children, and recent data provides direct evidence supporting early oral exposure as a means of preventing development of allergy. Since effects on early immune programming may be more significant in utero, there has been increasing interest in the potential protective role of maternal dietary modifications on the development of FA in offspring.In this article, we will review the current knowledge from animal and clinical studies on the role of maternal dietary modification, mainly through supplementation with vitamins, polyunsaturated fatty acids and probiotics, for the prevention of food allergy. Besides, the potential role of some promising FA treatments like Chinese herbal formula FAHF-2 for the primary prevention of FA in offspring will be reviewed. be due to uncontrolled environmental factors, timing of introduction to PN and different study protocols and populations, as well as undefined co-factors in maternal diet such as microbes [18][19][20]. In addition, retrospective maternal recall of dietary intake during pregnancy (and or lactation), sometimes months or years later, may contain recall bias. At present, the standard practice for PNA and other food allergies is strict allergen avoidance. There is no clinical study reporting whether peanut allergic mother consumption of controlled low doses of peanut that do not trigger clinical reactions would prevent offspring peanut or other food allergies. The Potential of Maternal Dietary Modification for Prevention of Food AllergyOlga Maternal allergenic food consumption for preventing food allergy in offspring: Animal studiesIn recent years several studies in animal models have provided direct evidence supporting early oral exposure as a means of preventing development of allergy.Melkild et al. [21] showed that intraperitoneal immunization of naïve mice with ovalbumin and adjuvant (Al(OH) 3 ) during pregnancy and lactation significantly reduced the specific IgE response and increased the IgG2a response in their offspring. Moreover, the IgE suppression was stronger if maternal allergen exposure was during early pregnancy (3 days into pregnancy) compared to a late pregnancy exposure (17 days into pregnancy). The same group reported that the protective effect of maternal immunization was affected by the type of adjuvant used: while offspring from mothers immunized with OVA and either pertussis toxin (PT) or Al(OH) 3 showed reduced levels of OVA-specific IgE and IgG1 and increased levels of OVA-specific IgG2a antibodies, maternal immunization with CpG and OVA did not affect antibody responses in offspring [22]. However, whether this effect is dependent on the specific adjuvant and/or the route of exposure employed has to be further investigated. Le...

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