Doctors discover child allergies are linked to the sex of the parent
Doctors at Southampton's university hospitals have discovered a child's risk of developing an allergic disease is doubled if a parent of the same sex has suffered from it.
In a groundbreaking study, Professor Hasan Arshad, a consultant in allergy and immunology at Southampton General Hospital, found that allergies such as asthma and eczema are gender-related and not simply hereditary.
"We have known for decades that allergy runs in the family and many thought that maternal effect was greater than paternal effect due to a mother’s closeness to her child, but we have discovered the inheritance is from mother to daughter and father to son," said Prof Arshad, who is also director of the David Hide Asthma and Allergy Centre on the Isle of Wight.
His team assessed 1,456 patients recruited from birth 23 years ago and found the risk of asthma in boys is only increased if their fathers suffer from the condition while, if mothers have asthma, it doubles the risk in their daughters but not sons.
The research, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and funded by the National Institute of Health in the US, also showed maternal eczema led to a 50% increased risk of eczema in girls, while paternal eczema did the same for boys.
"In the past, studies looking at the effect of parental allergy on children have not split their samples according to the sex of the child having assumed the mother and father influence is identical in males and females," explained Prof Arshad, chair of allergy and immunology at the University of Southampton.
"Now, with these groundbreaking findings, we should see a change in the way we assess a child's risk of disease, asking girls for the allergy history of their mother and boys for that of their father.”
He added: "This work also opens up novel areas for further research in the genetics of allergy as to why this sex dependent effect occurs and, if we can find the reason, we can try to find a way of preventing sex-specific disease."
Professor Hasan Arshad - Consultant in Allergy and Immunology at Southampton General Hospital
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