The overarching hypothesis of Project 1 is that pet ownership is associated with exposure to a wider diversity of bacteria in house dust, and that these exposures profoundly influence the bacterial community composition (BCC) of the infant gastrointestinal microbiome, maturation of immune responsiveness and subsequently, the development of allergy and allergic asthma. This Project thus proposes two population based studies and a longitudinal panel study to shed light upon mechanisms that may explain the observed protective effects of exposure to household pets during infancy against development of atopy and high total IgE in infancy. We propose to use an advanced, highly sensitive and semi-quantitative method for bacterial detection, the G3 PhyloChip. This method offers an unprecedented capacity for detailed, high-resolution profiling of complex microbial communities, detecting in parallel common and uncommon members of assemblages present in house dust and infant stool samples.
For Aims 1 and 2, we propose to examine samples already collected and stored from a large, carefully characterized, racially and socio-economically diverse, cohort of children (the WHEALS cohort).
In Aim 1 we propose using an innovative case-cohort design to compare samples from infants who became atopic at age 2 years versus samples from a randomly selected sub-cohort (serving as the control group). Using the sub-cohort in Aim 2, we will determine whether, and in what fashion, bacterial community composition of both house dust and infant stool are impacted by pet-keeping and if they are related to each other. The study of bacteria, or bacterial communities, identified as deriving from dog keeping will be enabled by a small prospective panel study proposed as Aim 3, to analyze the changes in microbial community composition of house dust in child-occupied but previously pet free households into which a dog is introduced. Because the 16S-rRNAPhyloChip provides information on relative abundance of every bacterial taxon detected, we aim, through statistical analyses, to take advantage of this semi-quantitative data to identify particular bacterial species as critically important in protection against atopy development.
This work will examine how pet keeping affects the bacterial ecology of the home environment that may affect a baby's immune development and risk of allergic sensitization. This work will also investigate how introducing a dog into a home may change the home environment's bacterial ecology.
| Durack, Juliana; Boushey, Homer A; Huang, Yvonne J (2018) Incorporating the airway microbiome into asthma phenotyping: Moving toward personalized medicine for noneosinophilic asthma. J Allergy Clin Immunol 141:82-83 |
| Wegienka, Ganesa; Sitarik, Alexandra; Bassirpour, Gillian et al. (2018) The associations between eczema and food and inhalant allergen-specific IgE vary between black and white children. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract 6:292-294.e2 |
| Sitarik, Alexandra Rene; Kasmikha, Nena Sabri; Kim, Haejin et al. (2018) Breast-feeding and delivery mode modify the association between maternal atopy and childhood allergic outcomes. J Allergy Clin Immunol 142:2002-2004.e2 |
| Cassidy-Bushrow, A E; Burmeister, C; Havstad, S et al. (2018) Prenatal antimicrobial use and early-childhood body mass index. Int J Obes (Lond) 42:1-7 |
| Sitarik, A R; Havstad, S; Levin, A M et al. (2018) Dog introduction alters the home dust microbiota. Indoor Air 28:539-547 |
| Sitarik, Alexandra R; Bobbitt, Kevin R; Havstad, Suzanne L et al. (2017) Breast Milk Transforming Growth Factor ? Is Associated With Neonatal Gut Microbial Composition. J Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 65:e60-e67 |
| Johnson, Christine C; Ownby, Dennis R (2017) The infant gut bacterial microbiota and risk of pediatric asthma and allergic diseases. Transl Res 179:60-70 |
| Havstad, Suzanne; Sitarik, Alexandra R; Johnson, Christine Cole et al. (2017) Allergic sensitization in American children of Middle Eastern ethnicity at age 2. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol 119:464-466 |
| Fonseca, W; Lucey, K; Jang, S et al. (2017) Lactobacillus johnsonii supplementation attenuates respiratory viral infection via metabolic reprogramming and immune cell modulation. Mucosal Immunol 10:1569-1580 |
| Cassidy-Bushrow, Andrea E; Sitarik, Alexandra R; Havstad, Suzanne et al. (2017) Burden of higher lead exposure in African-Americans starts in utero and persists into childhood. Environ Int 108:221-227 |
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