URBAN ENVIRONMENTAL & CHILDHOOD ASTHMA

本子项目是利用由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源的众多研究子项目之一。子项目和研究者（PI）可能已经从另一个NIH来源获得了主要资金，因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是中心的，不一定是研究者的机构。URECA研究将是一项纵向前瞻性研究，为期三年，从出生开始，研究城市儿童哮喘和过敏的环境和遗传风险因素。我们假设：1)市中心的环境因素对免疫系统的发育产生不利影响，从而促进细胞因子失调、过敏和三岁时复发性喘息；2)患有病毒性下呼吸道感染并在三岁时出现细胞因子失调的儿童在六岁时患哮喘的风险增加。父母有过敏性疾病或哮喘病史的家庭将在出生前登记。产前将评估母亲的压力和其他环境暴露。从出生开始，一直持续到3岁，将对儿童进行纵向评估，包括血细胞细胞因子反应，出生后可能影响细胞因子反应发展的环境影响（感染、过敏原和微生物暴露、压力、室内污染物），以及过敏和哮喘的临床表现（反复喘息）。最后，将从研究参与者及其母亲那里获得DNA，以评估观察到的与喘息疾病和哮喘相关的免疫发育模式的遗传相关性。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. The URECA study will be a longitudinal prospective study over a three-year time period, beginning at birth, of the environmental and genetic risk factors for asthma and allergy in urban children. We hypothesize that 1) environmental factors in the inner city adversely influence the development of the immune system to promote cytokine dysregulation, allergy, and recurrent wheezing by age three years and that 2) children who have had a viral lower respiratory infection and have developed cytokine dysregulation by age three years are at increased risk for the development of asthma by age six years. Families with a positive parental history of allergic diseases or asthma will be enrolled prior to birth. Maternal stress and other environmental exposures will be assessed prenatally. Beginning at birth and continuing for the first three years of life, the children will be evaluated longitudinally for blood cell cytokine responses, and for postnatal environmental influences (infections, allergen and microbial exposure, stress, indoor pollutants) that could affect the development of cytokine responses, and for clinical manifestations of allergy and asthma (recurrent wheeze). Finally, DNA will be obtained from study participants and their mothers to evaluate genetic correlates to the observed patterns of immune development as they relate to wheezing diseases and asthma.