Relation between allergic characteristics and intestinal flora

近年来，过敏性疾病的数量显著增加。与此同时，肠道植物群的作用及其与疾病的关系也越来越受到关注，尽管由于肠道植物群的测量和培养的困难，其病因尚未明确。人体中存在约1014种，超过400种类型的肠道植物群，其中60%-80%已被发现是不可培养的。因此，先前报道的研究仅基于30%的可培养肠道植物群进行。因此，了解肠道植物群的整体形象，以澄清过敏性疾病和肠道植物群之间的关系是非常重要的。本研究针对日本青森县弘前市的岩城地区的居民，调查过敏和肠道植物群的情况。采用多因素Logistic回归分析两者的相关性。研究对象为20岁以上的747名岩城居民（男性281名，女性466名），收集并测量了他们的过敏情况（湿疹、花粉热、食物过敏、呼吸道过敏如支气管哮喘、鼻和眼过敏、皮肤过敏）以及肠道植物群的信息（DNA分析和ITU，根据Nagashima方法）。结果发现，皮肤过敏与一些ITUs相关，鼻和眼过敏与9个ITUs（占总ITUs的41%）之间观察到显著相关性。

A remarkable increase in the number of allergic disease has been observed in recent years. At the same time, the role of intestinal flora and its association with the disease has been gaining attention, although its etiology has not been clarified due to the difficulties to measure and culture intestinal flora. Approximately 1014 with more than 400 types of intestinal flora are present in a human body, and 60%-80% of them have been found to be unculturable. Consequently, previously reported researches have been carried out based on the 30% of culturable intestinal flora only. Therefore, it is extremely important to understand the overall image of intestinal flora in order to clarify the associations between allergy diseases and intestinal flora.The present study was targeted to residents at Iwaki area in Hirosaki city, Aomori prefecture in Japan to investigate the situations of allergy and intestinal flora. The association between them was analysed by using the multiple logistic regression analysis. Subjects were 747 Iwaki residents (281 males and 466 females) over 20 years old, and information on their allergic situations (presence of eczema, hay fever, alimentary allergy, respiratory allergy such as bronchial asthma, nose and eye allergy, and cutaneous allergy) as well as their intestinal flora were collected and measured (DNA profiling and ITU according to the Nagashima method). As a result, cutaneous allergy was found to be associated with some ITUs, and the significant associations were observed between nose and eye allergy and 9 ITUs which accounted for 41% of total ITUs.