Background: Early exposure to bacterial endotoxin has been proposed to protect against allergy development in children. Whether endotoxin is able to direct T-cell differentiation into a predominance of type 1 immunity is still unresolved.
Objective: We sought to compare the effects of endotoxin and mite and cat allergens on T-cell differentiation in infants.
Methods: In a random population sample of 135 2-year-old children of an ongoing birth-cohort study, peripheral blood CD4+ and CD8+ T-cell subsets were defined by the expression of the chemokine receptors CCR5 and CCR3 as surrogate markers for type 1 and type 2 T cells, respectively. Endotoxin and mite and cat allergens were measured in house dust collected from the mother's mattress at the child's age of 3 months to assess early exposure.
Results: In the CD4+ T-cell subset, endotoxin levels were positively associated with high proportions of type 1 CCR5+ cells (odds ratio for fourth exposure quartile [OR(Q4)], 7.68; 95% CI, 1.35-43.75), whereas cat allergen levels were associated with increased proportions of type 2 CCR3+ cells (OR(Q4), 4.07; 95% CI, 1.05-15.85). In contrast to endotoxin, allergen levels were associated with CD8+ T cells, showing an inverse relationship between mite allergen concentrations and high proportions of CCR5+ or CCR3+ cells (CCR5+ cells: OR(Q4), 0.14; 95% CI, 0.03-0.74; CCR3+ cells: OR(Q4), 0.16; 95% CI, 0.03-0.89) and a positive association of cat allergen levels with increased proportions of CCR5+ cells (OR(Q4), 9.24, 95% CI, 1.61-53.10), as well as CCR3+ cells (OR(Q3), 6.64; 95% CI, 1.21-36.51).
Conclusion: Our results indicate that endotoxin has the potential to promote the development of type 1 CD4+ T cells, whereas mite and cat allergens primarily modify the proportion of CD8+ cells of both types.