Yazdanbakhsh Maria, Matricardi Paolo M
Department of Parasitology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Clin Rev Allergy Immunol. 2004 Feb;26(1):15-24. doi: 10.1385/CRIAI:26:1:15.
The hygiene hypothesis proposes that the stimulation of the immune system by microbes or microbial products protects from the development of inflammatory diseases; therefore a reduced exposure to infectious agents may explain the rise in allergic and autoimmune diseases in industrialized countries. The contribution of studies on parasites and allergy to our understanding of the hygiene hypothesis has been two-fold. First, several studies have shown an inverse association between exposure to (Toxplasma gondii) or harbouring of parasites (Schistosoma or Intestinal helminths) and allergy. Second, the mechanisms behind such protective effects have provided new insights and theories on the ability of parasite derived molecules to down-regulate immune responses and thereby to control inflammatory diseases such as allergies. In this review, recent findings and new concepts relating to the associations between parasites and allergies at the epidemiological, cellular and molecular level are discussed.
卫生假说提出，微生物或微生物产物对免疫系统的刺激可预防炎症性疾病的发生；因此，接触感染源的减少可能解释了工业化国家中过敏性和自身免疫性疾病的增加。关于寄生虫与过敏的研究对我们理解卫生假说的贡献有两个方面。第一，多项研究表明，接触（弓形虫）或感染寄生虫（血吸虫或肠道蠕虫）与过敏之间存在负相关。第二，这种保护作用背后的机制为寄生虫衍生分子下调免疫反应从而控制诸如过敏等炎症性疾病的能力提供了新的见解和理论。在这篇综述中，我们讨论了在流行病学、细胞和分子水平上与寄生虫和过敏之间关联相关的最新发现和新概念。
