Subject(s)
Anaphylaxis , Milk, Human , Animals , Cattle , Child , Female , Humans , Immunoglobulin E , Monitoring, PhysiologicSubject(s)
Anaphylaxis/etiology , Anti-Allergic Agents/therapeutic use , Milk Hypersensitivity/diagnosis , Milk, Human/immunology , Milk/immunology , Omalizumab/therapeutic use , Adult , Anaphylaxis/drug therapy , Animals , Cattle , Female , Humans , Immunoglobulin E/blood , Male , Mass Spectrometry/methods , Milk Hypersensitivity/drug therapy , Milk Hypersensitivity/immunology , Monitoring, Physiologic/methods , Skin Tests/methodsABSTRACT
House dust mites, cats and dogs are amongst the most frequent sources of indoor allergens in Europe. The fact that the allergens of house dust mites cause allergic disease through inhalation of house dust was discovered in 1964. The diagnosis of mite allergy is regularly complicated by its often nonspecific symptoms, which frequently develop insidiously and by no means always include attacks of paroxysmal sneezing and itching. Antibody-based immunological detection methods can be used to measure exposure to mite allergens. The structure and function of more than 20 allergens from Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and D. farina are known. Other relevant indoor allergens come from mammals kept in households. Here again, allergens have been described and diagnostic as well as exposure-measurement tools are available. It is important to remember indoor pests and other "unwelcome lodgers" as a possible cause in the case of unexplained symptoms experienced indoors. This short overview summarizes the current key points on the subject of "mites and other indoor allergens". The present article provides an overview of several articles published in a special issue of the German journal Allergologie [February 2015; 38(2)] on the subject of "Mites and other indoor allergens".
ABSTRACT
The aim of the present work is to evaluate the in vitro immunocompatibility of an elastomeric material with feasible applications in the cardiovascular field. In particular, since it is well known that surface chemistry and topography play a key role in the foreign body response, their influence on human monocytes was evaluated. The material, constituted by a poly(ether)urethane (PEtU) and a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), was synthesized to manufacture films and small-diameter vascular grafts with three different surface topographical features, smooth, rough and porous, and siloxane rates, 10, 30 and 40. Human THP-1 monocytes have been cultured for 72 h on the films and human blood has been circulating for 2 h into the grafts to assess leukocyte adhesion and cytokine releases. Materials extracts were utilized to evaluate monocyte apoptosis. Smooth films showed lower cell adhesion degrees than rough and porous ones. All the PEtU-PDMS (poly(ether)urethane-polydimethylsiloxane) films and vascular grafts induced a narrow inflammatory response, as demonstrated by slight cytokine secretion levels, in particular samples with the highest PDMS contents (30 and 40%) induced the lowest IL-1b secretion. Moreover, an absence of monocyte apoptosis advises that the negligible release values have not to be ascribed to material toxicity. In the end, surface topography showed to affect only monocyte adhesion while siloxane content the cytokine release. Therefore, the possibility to modify the above tested parameters during material synthesis and manufacture could allow to bound the inflammatory potency of the PEtU-PDMS devices and render them excellent candidates for cardiovascular reconstruction.
