Longitudinal trajectory of vitamin D status from birth to early childhood in the development of food sensitization.

Background: Increasing evidence supports the immunomodulatory effect of vitamin D on allergic diseases. The combined role of prenatal and postnatal vitamin D status in the development of food sensitization (FS) and food allergy remains understudied.

Methods: Plasma 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) levels of 460 children in the Boston Birth Cohort (BBC) were measured at birth and early childhood, and the subjects were genotyped for rs2243250 (C-590T) in the IL4 gene.

Maternal smoking during pregnancy, prematurity and recurrent wheezing in early childhood.

Background: Prenatal maternal smoking and prematurity independently affect wheezing and asthma in childhood.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the interactive effects of maternal smoking and prematurity upon the development of early childhood wheezing.

Methods: We evaluated 1,448 children with smoke exposure data from a prospective urban birth cohort in Boston.

Gene polymorphisms, breast-feeding, and development of food sensitization in early childhood.

Background: The effect of breast-feeding on the development of allergic disease is uncertain. There are no data that show whether this relationship varies by individual genotypes.

Objective: We sought to evaluate the effect of breast-feeding and gene-breast-feeding interactions on food sensitization (FS) in a prospective US birth cohort.

Does genetic regulation of IgE begin in utero? Evidence from T(H)1/T(H)2 gene polymorphisms and cord blood total IgE.

Background: Elucidation of early life factors is critical to understand the development of allergic diseases, especially those manifesting in early life such as food allergies and atopic dermatitis. Cord blood IgE (CBIgE) is a recognized risk factor for the subsequent development of allergic diseases. In contrast with numerous genetic studies of total serum IgE in children and adults, limited genetic studies on CBIgE have been conducted.

Maternal Pre-Pregnancy Obesity and Recurrent Wheezing in Early Childhood.

A number of studies have linked obesity with asthma in adults and children. Few longitudinal studies have evaluated the effect of maternal pre-pregnancy obesity on either asthma or early childhood respiratory morbidity, and these have not been in urban, nonwhite populations. We sought to determine whether pre-pregnancy obesity was associated with recurrent wheezing in an urban, nonwhite population.