Hygiene hypothesis

Yazdanbakhsh M, Kremsner PG, van Ree R Allergy, parasites, and the hygiene hypothesis. Science 2002 296 490-494. 

Schaub B, Lauener R, von Mutius E The many faces of the hygiene hypothesis. J Allergy Chn Immunol 2006 117 969-978. 

Fleming J, Fabry Z The hygiene hypothesis and multiple sclerosis. Ann Neurol 2007 61 85-89. 

Fleming JO, Cook TD Multiple sclerosis and the hygiene hypothesis. Neurology 2006 67 2085-2086. 

Wills-Karp M, Santeliz J. Karp CL The 38 germless theory of allergic disease revisiting the hygiene hypothesis. Nat Rev Immunol 2001 1 69-75. 

Probiotics are the first compounds tested to treat allergic disease, which are based on the concept of the hygiene hypothesis. The preliminary results have shown that the use of probiotics reduces the risk of the development of atopic eczema however, additional clinical trials are needed before their approval for use in a wider population. Other immunomodulatory compounds derived from bacteria (CpGs), mycobacteria and helminths are also being tested to prevent allergic disease. 

Guarner F, Bourdet-Sicard R, Brandtzaeg P, Gill HS, et al. 2006. Mechanisms of disease The hygiene hypothesis revisited. Nat Clin Prct Gastroenterol Hepatol. 3 275-284. 

Strachan DP. 2000a. Family size, infection and atopy The first decade of the hygiene hypothesis. Thorax. 55 S2-S10. 

Weiss ST. 2002. Eat dirt - The hygiene hypothesis and allergic diseases. 347 930-931. 

Romagnani, S. 2004b. The increased prevalence of allergy and the hygiene hypothesis Missing immune deviation, reduced immune suppression, or both Immunology 112 352-363. 

Cremonini F Gasbarrini A (2003) Atopy, Helicobacter pylori and the hygiene hypothesis. Eur J Gastroenterol Hepatol, 15 635-636. 

Allergic conjimctivitis affects approximately 15% of the population. The incidence is foimd to be increasing in developed coimtries and may be related to genetics, air pollution, pet ownership, and the hygiene hypothesis. This hypothesis proposes that when the immime system is not exposed to allergens early in life, there is a greater likelihood to develop allergies later in life. 

The hygiene hypothesis was first proposed by Strachan [2(IIIC)] in 1989 that allergic diseases could be prevented by infection in early childhood. This arose from the observation that hay fever at 11 and 23 years of age was inversely related to the number of children in the household at age 11 years, with the number of older children being more influential than birth order, and that eczema in the first year of life was independently inversely related to the number of older siblings. He proposed that allergic diseases could be prevented by infection in early childhood transmitted by unhygienic contact with older siblings or acquired... 

Measles Infection. In a historical cohort study in Guinea-Bissau, measles infection was associated with a large reduction in the risk of skin test positivity to house dust mites, compared with children who had been vaccinated against measles and not acquired the infection [ 102(111C)]. The mechanism of this effect is difficult to fit into the hygiene hypothesis because measles causes sequential Thl and Th2 cytokine responses. Measles vaccination leads to an enhanced Th2-like effect, with suppression of delayed-type hypersensitivity reactions [159(NC)]. 

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