Allergy Results from Malfunction of Respiratory Epithelium

Filed in archive Allergy: Research and Development , Hay Fever on April 4, 2009

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The report does sound a bit technical, but two recently published studies relate allergies to a malfunction of the epithelial cells lining the respiratory tract particularly the nose and eyes. Apparently birch pollen binds to, enters and travels through conjunctival and nasal epithelium of allergic patients but not of healthy subjects within one minute after the exposure.

During the research it became evident that during spring, in allergic patients the birch pollen allergen Bet v 1 changed the expression of hundreds of genes of the nasal epithelium compared to samples taken during winter; and of these genes several were connected with protein transport and regulation of cytoskeleton. An astonishing finding was that the immune response of in healthy controls to pollen exposure was strong, and hundreds of genes changed their expression during winter and spring; however, many of these genes were related to the function of the immune response.

This means that allergies are more than just immune disorders; there seems to be a physical aberration in the cells lining the mucous membranes which are the allergens' port of entry.