Review on farm environment, genes and development of asthma and allergies

Background and Aims Children growing up on farms are protected from asthma and atopy when compared to rural peers, yet the mechanisms underlying these effects are not exactly known. The review will summarize new findings mainly from two studies of the farming environment, i.e. PASTURE, a birth cohort and GABRIEL, a cross sectional study. Methods PASTURE has followed a birth cohort of 1063 children (half from farm families) from pregnancy up to age 6 yrs with extensive questionnaires, biological and environmental sampling and, immunological measurements. GABRIEL is a cross-sectional study of 9668 school-aged children, including 7606 with IgE measurements and 1708 with extensive genotyping data. Extensive environmental sampling was performed in about 800 children in one GABRIEL study area. Results Genome-wide interaction analysis for asthma and atopy and farm-related exposures in the GABRIEL study showed that the strong protective effect of a farm environment could not be attributed to the genetic make-up o...