Significance Over forty percent of the American population suffers from allergic airways disease, however there is currently no adequate experimental model for defining mechanisms of asthma in primates. Objectives The present study is a pilot project to establish a model for allergic airways disease in the rhesus monkey using a known human allergen, the house dust mite. We are testing specific postnatal pages and exposure protocols to develop an asthmatic condition in these animals. Results Challenge with parental injection and allergen aerosol in adult rhesus monkeys has resulted in animals with high titers of IgE specific to the allergen, shifts in circulating T lymphocyte populations, and airways which are highly reactive to allergen aerosol exposure and methacholine challenge. Future Directions We will begin examining these animals for the pathologic characteristics associated with asthma in human lung. We will initiate exposures of neonatal rhesus monkeys to house dust mite allergen and a ubiquitous environmental pollutant, ozone. KEYWORDS developmental lung toxicity, asthma, dust mite, airways reactivity FUNDING NIH RR00169 Pilot Study - In Progress
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