Background: Sufficient levels of club cell secretory protein (CC16) are essential to protect against lung function impairments. Experimental studies have demonstrated that CC16 modulates inflammatory responses and protects against airway hyperresponsiveness following Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Mp) infection. Individuals with asthma have low CC16 levels and increased susceptibility to Mp infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: PUFAs, especially from vegetable fat sources, have been suggested to contribute to weight regulation and be protective to cardiometabolic health. However, a few longitudinal studies on childhood exposure are available, with short follow-up time and conflicting results.
Objectives: To study the relationship between plasma proportions of PUFA in childhood and adolescence and cardiometabolic risk factors in young adulthood, such as obesity, body composition, blood pressure (BP), and blood lipids in a prospective cohort study.
Background: Lung function during childhood is an important predictor of subsequent health and disease. Understanding patterns of lung function and development of airflow limitation through childhood is necessary to inform lung function trajectories in relation to health and chronic airway disease. We aimed to derive trajectories of airflow limitation from childhood (age 5-8 years) into early adulthood (age 20-26 years) using repeated spirometry data from birth cohorts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Asthma exacerbations (AEs) represent the major contributor to the global asthma burden. Although genetic and environmental factors have been associated with AEs, the role of epigenetics remains uncovered.
Objective: This study aimed to identify whole blood DNA methylation (DNAm) markers associated with AEs in Europeans.
Background: The independent and interrelated long-term effects of the exposome such as air pollution, greenness, and ambient temperature on lung function are not well understood, yet relevant in the light of climate change.
Methods: Pre-bronchodilation FEV1 from five mature birth cohorts (N = 4724) and three adult cohorts (N = 6052) from five European countries were used to assess cross-sectional associations with air pollution, greenness, and ambient temperature, assigned to their residential address. All two-way interactions and square terms were a priori included in building the final elastic net regression model.
Background: Some individuals never achieve normal peak FEV in early adulthood. It is unknown if this is due to airflow limitation and/or lung restriction.
Methods: To investigate this, we: (1) looked forward in 19,791 participants in the Dutch Lifelines general population cohort aged 25-35 years with 5-year follow-up; and (2) looked backwards in 2032 participants in the Swedish BAMSE birth cohort with spirometry at 24 years of age but also at 16 and/or 8 years.
Background: In COPD, the balance between matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) and their natural inhibitors [tissue inhibitors of metalloproteinases (TIMPs)] is shifted towards excessive degradation, reflected in bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) as increased MMP concentrations. Because of their critical role in lung homeostasis, MMP activity is tightly regulated, but to what extent this regulation occurs through epigenetic mechanisms remains unknown.
Methods: To explore the interplay between MMPs, TIMPs, and DNA methylation (DNAm) we (1) analysed MMP-9, -12, and TIMP-1 concentrations in BAL fluid, and profiled DNAm in BAL cells from 18 COPD and 30 control subjects, (2) estimated protein-COPD relationships using multivariable regression, (3) identified protein quantitative trait methylation loci (pQTMs) with COPD as a potential modifier in a separate interaction model, and (4) integrated significant interactions with a previous COPD GWAS meta-analysis.
Introduction: By recent estimates, 40% of children worldwide are exposed to second-hand smoke (SHS), which has been associated with adverse health outcomes. While numerous studies have linked maternal smoking during pregnancy (MSDP) to widespread differences in child blood DNA methylation (DNAm), research specifically examining postnatal SHS exposure remains sparse. To address this gap, we conducted epigenome-wide meta-analyses to identify associations of postnatal SHS and child blood DNAm.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Asthma is associated with impaired lung function; however, it is uncertain if a lower childhood lung function is associated with asthma onset and persistence during adolescence. The aims of the present study were to investigate the association between childhood lung function and onset and persistence of asthma during adolescence.
Methods: In the population-based BAMSE (Sweden), PIAMA (Netherlands) and MAAS (UK) birth cohorts, we analysed the association of forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV), forced vital capacity (FVC), FEV/FVC and forced expiratory volume at 75% of FVC at age 8 years with asthma onset and persistence in adolescence (age 12-16 years) using cohort-specific logistic regression analysis followed by meta-analysis.
Introduction: Snus is suggested as a risk factor for cardiometabolic disease, but little is known about health effects in young populations, particularly in women. We aimed to investigate associations between snus and cardiometabolic health markers among young men and women.
Method: This study was conducted within the BAMSE birth cohort and included participants followed up around 24 years (n=2256) and 26 years (n=1011).
Background: Both depression and respiratory disease are common today in young populations. However, little is known about the relationship between them.
Aims: This study aims to explore the association between depression in childhood to early adulthood and respiratory health outcomes in early adulthood, and the potential underlying mechanisms.
Background: Numerous studies have investigated links between body mass index (BMI) trajectories and cardiovascular risk, yet discrepancies in BMI measurement duration and timing of the cardiovascular-related outcome evaluation have led to inconsistent findings.
Methods: We included participants from the Swedish birth cohort (BAMSE) and applied latent class mixture modeling to identify BMI trajectories using data of multiple BMI measures (≥ 4 times) from birth until 24-year follow-up (n = 3204). Subsequently, we analyzed the associations of BMI trajectories with lipids (n = 1974), blood pressure (n = 2022), HbA1c (n = 941), and blood leukocytes (n = 1973) using linear regression.
Background: Few studies have investigated the influence of body mass index (BMI) trajectories on lung function covering the entire growth period.
Methods: We conducted a prospective study using data from the Swedish BAMSE birth cohort. Latent class mixture modelling was employed to examine the diversity in BMI z-scores from birth to 24 years of age.
Socioeconomic inequalities in the exposome have been found to be complex and highly context-specific, but studies have not been conducted in large population-wide cohorts from multiple countries. This study aims to examine the external exposome, encompassing individual and environmental factors influencing health over the life course, and to perform dimension reduction to derive interpretable characterization of the external exposome for multicountry epidemiological studies. Analyzing data from over 25 million individuals across seven European countries including 12 administrative and traditional cohorts, we utilized domain-specific principal component analysis (PCA) to define the external exposome, focusing on air pollution, the built environment, and air temperature.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Children with severe asthma suffer from recurrent symptoms and impaired quality of life despite advanced treatment. Underlying causes of severe asthma are not completely understood, although genetic mechanisms are known to be important.
Objective: The aim of this study was to identify gene regulatory enhancers in leukocytes, to describe the role of these enhancers in regulating genes related to severe and mild asthma in children, and to identify known asthma-related SNPs situated in proximity to enhancers.
Am J Respir Crit Care Med
September 2024
Asthma is a descriptive label for an obstructive inflammatory disease in the lower airways manifesting with symptoms including breathlessness, cough, difficulty in breathing, and wheezing. From a clinician's point of view, asthma symptoms can commence at any age, although most patients with asthma-regardless of their age of onset-seem to have had some form of airway problems during childhood. Asthma inception and related pathophysiologic processes are therefore very likely to occur early in life, further evidenced by recent lung physiologic and mechanistic research.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe benefits of improved air quality on asthma remain understudied. Our aim was to investigate associations of changes in ambient air pollution with incident asthma from school age until young adulthood in an area with mostly low air pollution levels. Participants in the BAMSE (Swedish abbreviation for Children, Allergy, Environment, Stockholm, Epidemiology) birth cohort from Stockholm without asthma before the 8-year follow-up were included ( = 2,371).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Many studies reported associations between long-term exposure to environmental factors and mortality; however, little is known on the combined effects of these factors and health. We aimed to evaluate the association between external exposome and all-cause mortality in large administrative and traditional adult cohorts in Europe.
Methods: Data from six administrative cohorts (Catalonia, Greece, Rome, Sweden, Switzerland and the Netherlands, totaling 27,913,545 subjects) and three traditional adult cohorts (CEANS-Sweden, EPIC-NL-the Netherlands, KORA-Germany, totaling 57,653 participants) were included.
Dog ownership has been associated with several complex traits, and there is evidence of genetic influence. We performed a genome-wide association study of dog ownership through a meta-analysis of 31,566 Swedish twins in 5 discovery cohorts and an additional 65,986 European-ancestry individuals in 3 replication cohorts from Sweden, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Association tests with >7.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Celiac disease (CeD) is associated with several immune-mediated disorders, but it is unclear whether it is associated with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE).
Objective: We sought to examine the risk of EoE in patients with biopsy-verified CeD compared with matched controls and siblings.
Methods: Using nationwide population-based histopathology data, we identified 27,338 patients with CeD diagnosed in the period 2002 to 2017 in Sweden.