New Risk for Asthma, Allergy Found
(HealthDayNews, 12/23/04)

Professor Gary Huffnagle of the University of Michigan and a colleague used a mouse to demonstrate how allergies may arise when antibiotics disrupt the balance of intestinal microflora. The investigators theorize that changes in the bacteria and fungi lining the gut may intensify immune responses to inhaled allergens. Their findings suggest that, instead of the lungs being the source of T-cells that regulate the intensity of a reaction to an inhaled substance as is usually supposed, it is actually swallowed allergens that result in the generation of T-cells, which then migrate to the lungs.

(University of Michigan Health System, news release, Dec. 23, 2004)