Prenatal Acintebacter lwoffii exposure leads to protection against experimentally induced asthma in mice by epigenetic mechanisms

Background: During the last years several studies have revealed that exposure to a traditional farming environment during early live or already during pregnancy can protect children against the development of allergic disease like asthma. The reduced asthma susceptibility of these children might be mediated by epigenetic changes in immune cells induced by environmental triggers like exposure to microorganisms. Method: In order to show that epigenetic changes can modulate the asthmatic phenotype we took advantage of a mouse model of experimental asthma. Pregnant mother mice were treated with the farm derived bact…