/ Modified jun 22, 2017 4:43 p.m.

Episode 40: Recent Research at the University of Arizona to Prevent Asthma in Children has Been Published in the New England Journal of Medicine

REPEAT. New research into preventing asthma in children.

REPEAT. Asthma, the most prevalent chronic childhood disease, affects more than 278 million people worldwide. Environmental factors are implicated in the recent and dramatic rise in asthma cases observed in westernized countries. Growing up on farms has been linked to a significantly lower prevalence of childhood asthma, and, in a report published by the New England Journal of Medicine this week, the U of A's Donata Vercelli and her colleagues report that a key component of the farm environment is the high level of microbes present in house dust on certain farms. By comparing the environments of Amish and Hutterite farm children, who have similar genetic backgrounds and lifestyles but live on different types of farms and have different incidents of asthma, they discovered that the traditional Amish farms, where livestock is kept in barns close to the house, provide sustained exposure to microbes that stimulate the immune system in ways that decrease the susceptibility to asthma. Amish farm dust also protects experimental mice from asthma-like symptoms. The results reported this week are exciting in that they lay the groundwork for the identification of protective environmental products and the development of effective strategies for preventing asthma.

IN THIS EPISODE

Donata Vercelli, Ph.D, Professor of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Arizona
Leslie Tolbert, Ph.D, Regents' Professor in the University of Arizona's Department of Neuroscience

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona