Cats in the house and eczema in children

In some situations, the presence of a cat at home could increase the risk of eczema (also known as atopic dermatitis) in children. This is the conclusion of a study conducted by a team of researchers at the University of Dundee (Scotland - GB). Details of the research were published in the journal Plos Medicine. The study, which involved 892 children born in Great Britain and Denmark, has focused on a particular gene called FLG important to codify the filaggrina. The role of filaggrina is to protect the skin from infectious organisms, toxins and allergens. The researchers noted that some variants of the FLG gene stop working well, making the skin more vulnerable children, whether in the first year of life are small in contact with a cat. As a result, children have an increased risk of developing atopic dermatitis. Scholars of the University of Dundee, show that this situation has been noticed especially in small that in the first year of life were in contact with cats. From the time dermatologists are divided on the risk of eczema in children, for example, previous studies have concluded that early exposure to cats would help reduce the risk of eczema. The new British study seems to be of the opposite opinion, it is argued that the combination of certain environmental factors and other gene could be the cause of the initial development by eczema. The data initially held by researchers in Scotland were too limited for this study have also participated colleagues of the Universities of Manchester and Copenhagen. Scholars, in addition to keep under observation showed that small a genetic variant of the gene FLG, focused on environmental factors such as presence of cats, dogs and dust mites. After careful analysis, the researchers concluded that the FLG mutation of the gene was associated with a probability of developing a double eczema in the first 12 months of life, but if the house was also a cat, the risk quadrupled.