Aiming toward effective preventive medicine against Japanese cedar pollinosis : -----Epidemiology, patient investigation, and integrated research including genotype analyses-

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Environmental rather than genetic factors appear to play the major role in the recent increased prevalence of Japanese cedar pollinosis in Japan. However, investigating genes determining IgE levels, eosinophils and analyzing gene polymorphisms may contribute to finding new methods of treatment and establishing preventive medicine against this disease.Among a total of 219 asymptomatic individuals who were anti-Japanese cedar pollen IgE antibody positive as determined by RAST, only a handful subsequently developed symptoms of Japanese cedar pollinosis or secondary onset of Japanese cedar pollinosis over 5-14 years of follow-up. Among those who subsequently developed secondary onset of disease, >50% were found to have high initial RAST scores, suggesting that the incidence of Japanese cedar pollinosis is correlated with RAST score. Hence it may be prudent to advise asymptomatic individuals with high RAST scores to avoid exposure to Japanese cedar pollen so as to delay onset of the disease … More .Analysis of sequence variants of the FcεRIβ gene revealed that patients with nasal allergy exhibit a single nucleotide polymorphism(SNP) in which the amino acid at 237 of the intracellular domain changes from glutamine to glycine more frequently than individuals without nasal allergy. Furthermore, II homo polymorphism of the IL-4Rα gene is associated with higher serum nonspecific IgE and Japanese cedar pollen specific IgE levels than are seen in individuals showing Il,Val hetero and Val homo expression types. When the age of pollinosis onset was compared among these 3 genotypes, it was found significantly lower among II homo type than the other 2 expression types, suggesting that II homo type individuals seem characteristically predisposed to early onset of pollinosis.Studies comparing eosinophil-associated gene polymorphism in healthy and pollinosis phenotypes have revealed several relationships between the various genotypes and specific disease parameters and suggest that Eotaxin G (123G/A) and IL5 (-703C/T) genotypes can affect the timing of symptom onset after sensitization as well as nasal mucosal hyperresponsiveness Less