Washington, March 09: A gene that could be responsible for a severe and often painful type of food allergy called eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) has been discovered by American scientists.
After doing a genome-wide study, researchers led by Hakon Hakonarson from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, found EoE was linked to a region of chromosome 5 that includes two genes, Nature Genetics journal reported.
“The likely culprit is the gene TSLP, which has higher activity levels in children with EoE compared to healthy subjects,” Hakonarson said.
“This gene is a plausible candidate because of its biological role in allergic inflammation”.
“In addition, TSLP has been previously linked to allergic inflammatory diseases, such as asthma and the skin inflammation, atopic dermatitis,” the author said.
A person suffering from EoE, which may cause weight loss, vomiting, heartburn and swallowing difficulties, may not be able to eat a wide variety of foods, the study said.
The hallmark of EoE is swelling and inflammation in the esophagus, accompanied by high levels of immune cells called eosinophils. It can affect people of any age, but is more common among young men who have a history of other allergic diseases such as asthma and eczema.
In the current study, the researchers performed a genome-wide analysis on 181 samples from the Cincinnati center, compared to nearly 2,000 healthy controls from The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
—-PTI