Various fungi isolated from asthmatic children’s homes induce asthma like allergic lung disease in mice. (36.2)

Abstract

Abstract Fungal exposure has been associated to allergic lung diseases (including asthma) for over a century. The current asthma model holds that fungal exposure acts merely as antigens triggering long developed pre-existing sensitivity. We challenge this assumption and demonstrate A. niger inhalation can lead to the development of asthma-like allergic lung disease at high doses and at lower doses could act as a Th2 adjuvant allowing develop of allergic responses to a secondary benign antigen. Demonstrating that one fungi could illicit a profound allergic response, we wanted to investigate the allergic lung responses of other fungi. 13 fungi were isolated from the homes of asthmatic children and used to intra-nasally challenge normal C57Bl/6 mice. Select fungi were chosen for dose-dependent analysis and fungal clearance. All fungi analyzed induced at least minor allergic lung disease however the levels varied widely. Fungal clearance appeared to decrease with an increase in conidia size. Our results suggest that the general response to fungal conidia inhalation is the development of allergic lung responses.