Asthma, hay fever and atopic dermatitis are complex diseases. Presumably, genetic factors that protected from infectious agents in the past do promote allergic disease in the absence of infectious agents. Linkage and candidate gene studies identified common as well as disease specific genetic determinants of atopic diseases. However, a large number of chromosomal regions and candidate genes were related to asthma and associated traits. International collaborations and meta analyses appear to be mandatory to identify the major genes for asthma and atopy. Also, gene-gene and gene-environment interaction analyses are of great importance to identify genetic risk factors for allergic diseases. Birth cohorts are particularly valuable since exposure to various environmental agents have been documented since early childhood. This work summarizes genetic and epidemiologic studies of the German Multicenter Allergy Study (MAS) that contributed significantly to our understanding of the development of asthma and allergy in childhood. This work summarizes candidate and linkage studies performed in the MAS-cohort and outlines early risk factors for allergic diseases in childhood that were observed in MAS-participants.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:HUMBOLT/oai:edoc.hu-berlin.de:18452/14601 |
| Date | 25 November 2004 |
| Creators | Nickel, Renate |
| Contributors | Sennhaeuser,, Urbanek, |
| Publisher | Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Medizinische Fakultät - Universitätsklinikum Charité |
| Source Sets | Humboldt University of Berlin |
| Language | German |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | doctoralThesis, doc-type:doctoralThesis |
| Format | application/pdf, application/octet-stream, application/octet-stream |
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