Genes Associated with Food Allergy and Eosinophilic Esophagitis.

摘要

The ingestion of food antigens plays an essential role in the development of eosinophilic esophagitis (EE) as total removal of dietary antigens by using an amino acid based oral formula improves clinical symptoms and esophageal histology in 98% of patients with EE within a month. EE is thought to be mediated by both IgE and non-IgE mediated food allergy. In this study we are particularly interested in identifying genes in EE linked to a significant complication of EE namely esophageal stricture formation. This study focuses on increasing our understanding of two genes (TGF-b and acidic chitinase) associated with remodeling and stricture formation in the esophagus in EE. The importance of TGF-b and acidic chitinase to the development of egg induced remodeling of the esophagus is being studied in a mouse model of egg induced EE in which either TGF-b signaling or acidic chitinase activity is neutralized. Our studies demonstrate that targeting Smad3 or chitinase both partially reduced egg induced esophageal fibrosis associated with EE. The combination of targeting Smad3 and chitinase may be more effective than targeting each pathway alone.