Background: Endotoxin exposure has been shown to be associated with a decreased prevalence of atopic sensitization and symptoms. Yet endotoxin represents only a part of the indoor microbial exposure. Muramic acid, a constituent of peptidoglycan, is present in gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria in the environment and may therefore serve as an additional marker of microbial exposure.
Objective: To study the factors determining the level of indoor exposure to muramic acid/peptidoglycan, as well as its potential association with respiratory health.
Methods: In 553 farm and nonfarm school children from Austria, Switzerland, and Germany, mattress dust muramic acid concentrations were determined, and health was assessed by using IgE measurements and questionnaire information.
Results: The muramic acid concentration was found to be significantly higher in dust from farm children's mattresses than in dust from nonfarm children's mattresses (157 vs 131 ng/mg). Children with higher mattress dust muramic acid concentrations had a significantly lower prevalence of wheezing (odds ratio of highest vs lowest tertile of muramic acid concentration, 0.3; 95% CI, 0.1-0.9), regardless of farming status and endotoxin exposure. The association for asthma was similar, and no association was found with atopic sensitization.
Conclusion: Next to endotoxin, muramic acid provides us with an independent marker of microbial exposure. Unlike endotoxin, muramic acid was inversely associated with wheezing rather than with atopic sensitization.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jaci.2004.01.783 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Role of Milk Intake in Modulating Serum Lipid Profiles and Gut Metabolites.
Metabolites
December 2024
Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region Buffalo Milk Quality and Safety Control Technology Engineering Research Center, Guangxi Buffalo Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanning 530001, China.
Background/objectives: Milk is one of the main sources of nutrition in people's daily diet, but the fat in milk raises health concerns in consumers. Here, we aimed to elucidate the impact of Buffalo milk and Holstein cow milk consumption on blood lipid health through metabolomics analysis.
Methods: Golden hamsters were administered Murrah Buffalo milk (BM) or Holstein cow milk (HM), and the body weight and serum lipid indicators were tested and recorded.
Developing a 3D bone model of osteosarcoma to investigate cancer mechanisms and evaluate treatments.
FASEB J
December 2024
Antibody and Vaccine Group, Faculty of Medicine, Centre for Cancer Immunology, School of Cancer Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone cancer, occurring frequently in children and young adults. Patients are treated with surgery and multi-agent chemotherapy, and despite the introduction of mifamurtide in 2011, there has been little improvement in survival for decades. 3-dimensional models offer the potential to understand the complexity of the osteosarcoma tumor microenvironment and aid in developing new treatment approaches.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMuramyl dipeptide potentiates lipoteichoic acid-induced nitric oxide production via TLR2/NOD2/PAFR signaling pathways.
Front Immunol
December 2024
Department of Oral Microbiology and Immunology, and Dental Research Institute, School of Dentistry, Seoul National University, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Lipoteichoic acid (LTA) and peptidoglycan (PGN) are considered as key virulence factors of , which is a representative sepsis-causing Gram-positive pathogen. However, cooperative effect of LTA and PGN on nitric oxide (NO) production is still unclear despite the pivotal roles of NO in initiation and progression of sepsis. We here evaluated the cooperative effects of LTA (SaLTA) and muramyl dipeptide (MDP), the minimal structure of PGN, on NO production in both a mouse macrophage-like cell line, RAW 264.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLong-Circulating and Targeted Liposomes Co-loading Cisplatin and Mifamurtide: Formulation and Delivery in Osteosarcoma Cells.
AAPS PharmSciTech
November 2024
Department of Pharmacy, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China.
Osteosarcoma (OS) is one of the most common primary bone sarcoma with high malignant degree and poor prognosis, for which there is an urgent need to develop novel therapeutic approaches. Recent research has revealed that mifamurtide significantly improved the outcome of OS patients when combined with adjuvant chemotherapy drugs including cisplatin (DDP). The present study aimed to construct a drug delivery system co-loading DDP and mifamurtide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRIPK2 Is Crucial for the Microglial Inflammatory Response to Bacterial Muramyl Dipeptide but Not to Lipopolysaccharide.
Int J Mol Sci
November 2024
Department of Neuroscience, McKnight Brain Institute, University of Florida, 1149 SW Newell Drive, Gainesville, FL 32610, USA.
Receptor-interacting serine/threonine protein kinase 2 (RIPK2) is a kinase that is essential in modulating innate and adaptive immune responses. As a downstream signaling molecule for nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain 1 (NOD1), NOD2, and Toll-like receptors (TLRs), it is implicated in the signaling triggered by recognition of microbe-associated molecular patterns by NOD1/2 and TLRs. Upon activation of these innate immune receptors, RIPK2 mediates the release of pro-inflammatory factors by activating mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) and nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-κB).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!