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Brian Vastag

JAMA. 2001;285:1952.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Investigators have found a new candidate for the cause of food allergies: eosinophils. Until now, it was unknown whether these components of the immune system caused damage or were simply innocent bystanders during food allergies.

In research supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Mark Rothenberg, MD, PhD, of Children's Medical Center in Cincinnati, directed a team in developing a mouse model of allergy. The animals developed inflamed digestive tracts, became ill, and lost weight, similar to humans with eosinophilic gastrointestinal inflammation.

To examine the role of eosinophils in the disease model, the researchers studied a key protein called eotaxin, which summons eosinophils when the body senses danger. In the allergic mice, cells lining the digestive tract released eotaxin and attracted eosinophils. But in knock-out mice lacking the gene for eotaxin, no eosinophils appeared and the mice did not develop symptoms. "A food can . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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