Both interleukin (IL)-33 and IL-25 induce Th2 cytokine production by various cell types, suggesting that they contribute to development of allergic disorders. However, the precise roles of IL-33 and IL-25 in house dust mite (HDM)-induced allergic rhinitis (AR) remain unclear. Both IL-33 and IL-25 were produced mainly by nasal epithelial cells during HDM-induced AR. Eosinophil and goblet cell co...

The Hidden Dynamic Model (HDM) has been an attractive acoustic modeling approach because it provides a computational model for coarticulation and the dynamics of human speech. However, the lack of a direct decoding algorithm has been a barrier to research progress on HDM. We have developed a new HDM-based acoustic model, the Hidden-Trajectory HMM (HTHMM), which combines the state/mixture topolo...

BACKGROUND Sensitization to house dust mite (HDM) is an important risk factor for the development of asthma and allergic disease in childhood. Higher levels of HDM allergen are linked to increased sensitization to HDM. OBJECTIVE To study the effect of mite-impermeable mattress encasings and an educational package on the development of allergies in a newborn cohort. METHODS Six hundred and n...

BACKGROUND Vitamin A may have some influence on the immune system, but the role in allergy modulation is still unclear. OBJECTIVE To clarify whether high levels of retinoic acid (RA) affects allergic response in vivo, we used a murine experimental model of airway allergic disease. METHODS Ovalbumin (OVA)-immunization/OVA-challenge (OVA/OVA) and house dust mite (HDM)-immunization/HDM-challen...

BACKGROUND The poor correlation between allergen-specific immunoglobulin E (asIgE) and clinical signs of allergy in helminth infected populations suggests that helminth infections could protect against allergy by uncoupling asIgE from its effector mechanisms. We investigated this hypothesis in Ugandan schoolchildren coinfected with Schistosoma mansoni and hookworm. METHODS Skin prick test (SP...

House dust mite (HDM) represents one of the most common sources of aeroallergens worldwide and more than 50% of allergic patients are sensitized to these allergenic molecules. HDM allergy research in the past has been mainly focused on adaptive, mite allergen-dependent immune responses. In recent years it has become clear that, although the allergenspecific CD4+ Th2 cells orchestrate HDM allerg...

Prenatal and postnatal cigarette smoke exposure enhances the risk of developing asthma. Despite this as well as other smoking related risks, 11% of women still smoke during pregnancy. We hypothesized that cigarette smoke exposure during prenatal development generates long lasting differential methylation altering transcriptional activity that correlates with disease. In a house dust mite (HDM) ...

BACKGROUND House dust mites (HDM) are one of the major risk factors for the development of bronchial asthma. The percentage of sensitization to HDM was reported to be 71.9% in Taipei City. In southwestern Taiwan, the percentage of sensitization to HDM has not been estimated. We retrospectively reviewed the medical records of asthmatic patients treated at the Chiayi branch of Chang Gung Memorial...

Advances in digital technologies for information capture combined with massive increases in the capacity of digital storage media mean that it is now possible to capture and store one’s entire life experiences in a Human Digital Memory (HDM). Information can be captured from a myriad of personal information devices including desktop computers, PDAs, digital cameras, video and audio recorders, a...

BACKGROUND House dust mite (HDM) allergy is a frequent cause of allergic asthma in children. Reduction of exposure seems to be the most logical way to treat these patients. OBJECTIVE Our aim was to investigate whether mattress and pillow encasings resulted in an effective long-term control of HDM allergen levels, thereby reducing the need for asthma medication in children with asthma and HDM ...