LPS and Health Maintenance

(1) Pollinosis and LPS

Decreased levels of natural intake of LPS in early childhood have a correlation with an increased number of people with allergic predisposition (*1).

Thirty percent or more of the Japanese population suffer from an allergic disease, such as pollinosis and atopic dermatitis, i.e., about a 3-fold increase over the past 20 years. A cause for today’s rapid increase in the onset of allergic diseases is believed to be that, as compared with the past, our environments have become so clean that stimulations with bacterial components have decreased. A study conducted in Europe showed that children residing in rural areas, who have many opportunities to come into contact with animals and soil and consequently intake a lot of LPS naturally, have a smaller incidence of diseases, such as pollinosis and asthma, than children living in urban areas, who have much fewer opportunities of this kind (*1). This study indicates the importance of coming into contact with microbes and LPS in early childhood, thereby activating the innate immune system, in order to control the onset of allergic diseases.

In close agreement with these reports, when mice were given cedar pollen to induce pollinosis, it was shown that the symptoms of pollinosis were not appeared in mice given LPS with the cedar pollen.

(*1) Environmental exposure to endotoxin and its relation to asthma in school-age children, The New England Journal of Medicine 347 (12): 869-877 (2002)