Bacteria brought in from the outside on dogs may help prevent asthma in children.
According to research published online Monday, December 16, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists have potentially found the reason why children growing up with pets are less likely to develop allergies or asthma. The answer, researchers believe, lies in bacteria that live in the gut. The study was conducted with mice at the University of California, San Francisco, led by microbiologist Susan Lynch. In 2010, Lynch and her colleagues showed that dogs who live both indoors and outdoors are likely to bring environmental bacteria into the house, like some of the ones that are also found in the human gut. By breathing in these microbes, children are protecting themselves by strengthening their immune systems.
Dr. Lynch’s experiment was conducted using two groups of mice, one that that had been fed dust from a house with a dog and another that had been given dust from a house that was animal-free. Both groups were then subsequently given a mixture of ground-up cockroaches and eggs, which are two common substances that both rodents and humans are allergic to. The mice who had ingested the dog dust had little or no allergic reaction, while the mice who had consumed regular dust had the human equivalent of a runny nose and stuffed throat.
Because of this research, Dr. Lynch was able to hypothesize that babies growing up around dogs will have their immune systems inoculated and protected from potential harmful pollutants in the air by breathing in this bacteria into their gut. The bacteria, known as L. johnsonii, is critical in airway protection. Though other scientists do note that more extensive research will have to be done to prove Dr. Lynch’s theory.
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