The Journal of allergy and clinical immunology
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J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. · Aug 2009
Does higher body mass index contribute to worse asthma control in an urban population?
Epidemiologic findings support a positive association between asthma and obesity. ⋯ Using 4 validated asthma control questionnaires, we failed to find an association between obesity and asthma control in an urban population with asthma. Weight loss may not be an appropriate strategy to improve asthma control in this population.
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J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. · Aug 2009
Exploring the repertoire of IgE-binding self-antigens associated with atopic eczema.
Atopic eczema (AE) is the most common chronic inflammatory skin disease. Recent data demonstrate the presence of autoreactive serum IgE antibodies correlating with the severity of the disease. ⋯ These data demonstrate a broad spectrum of at least 140 IgE-binding self-antigens associated with AE. By binding IgE antibodies or activating specific T cells, they might promote, perpetuate, or both existing skin inflammation.
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J. Allergy Clin. Immunol. · Aug 2009
Relevance of IgE binding to short peptides for the allergenic activity of food allergens.
Analysis of IgE antibody binding to epitopes provides information for food allergy diagnosis and management and construction of hypoallergenic candidate vaccines, but the contribution of sequential epitopes to functionally relevant IgE binding is not fully understood. ⋯ Peptides identified as major sequence epitopes on Pen a 1 and Ara h 2 show little contribution to the IgE binding of the allergens studied.