Genetic variation in immunoregulatory pathways and atopic phenotypes in infancy.

Background: Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease that often originates in early childhood. Although candidate gene studies have identified many potential asthma susceptibility genes in adult populations, few have studied associations with immune phenotypes in the first year that might be early clinical markers of asthma.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the contribution of genetic variation to cytokine response profiles and atopic phenotypes in the first year of life in the Childhood Origin of Asthma cohort.