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Amish environment reprograms immune cells, protects children from asthma
Children who grew up on an Amish farm gained greater immunity against asthma compared with children from a Hutterite community because the environment engaged and shaped the innate immune response, according to recent study findings.
“Whereas the Amish practice traditional farming, live on single-family dairy farms and use horses for fieldwork and transportation, the Hutterites live on large, highly industrialized, communal farms,” Carole Ober, PhD, professor and chairwoman of human genetics at the University of Chicago, and colleagues wrote. “Strikingly, the prevalence of asthma in Amish vs. Hutterite schoolchildren is 5.2% vs. 21.3%, and the prevalence of allergic sensitization is 7.2% vs. 33.3%, as previously reported [in other studies].”
To assess the differences in asthma prevalence between the groups, Ober and colleagues studied 30 Amish children from Indiana and 30 Hutterite children from South Dakota aged 7 to 14 years during November and December 2012. The investigators scrutinized the children’s genetic profiles, which they said showed “remarkable … similarities,” measured allergen and endotoxin levels and examined the microbiome composition of indoor dust samples within the children’s homes. Serum immunoglobulin E levels, cytokine responses, gene expression and peripheral-blood leukocytes were phenotyped with flow cytometry from whole blood samples.
None of the Amish children had asthma, while six Hutterites were diagnosed with asthma. The prevalence of asthma and allergic sensitization in the Amish children was significantly (four to six times) lower than in the Hutterite children. Endotoxin levels measured from airborne dust in the Amish homes was almost sevenfold greater than that in Hutterite homes (4,399 vs. 648 endotoxin units/m2; P < .001).
Analyses of the proportion and gene-expression profiles of peripheral-blood immune cells showed significant differences in the cells and genes included in innate immune responses to microbes between the cohorts.
“Notable among the genes that were more highly expressed in the Amish children was TNFAIP3, which encodes A20, a ubiquitin-editing enzyme that limits the activity of multiple inflammatory pathways that depend on nuclear factor kB (NF-kB) and that has also been shown to mediate the protective effects of European farm-dust extracts in murine models of allergic asthma,” the researchers wrote.
“Our study … was sufficient to show significant differences in the prevalence of asthma and in immune profiles, suggesting that very strong environmental factors must account for these differences,” they concluded. – by Kate Sherrer
Disclosure: Ober reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
