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JACI Highlights - May 2008
The acquisition of tolerance towards cow’s milk through probiotic supplementation: a randomized controlled trial
Jeroen Hol, MD, Eduard HG van Leer MD, PhD, Beatrix EE Elink Schuurman MScN, Lilian F de Ruiter, Janneke N Samsom, PhD, Wim Hop, MD, PhD, Herman J. Neijens, MD, PhD, Johan C de Jongste, MD, PhD, and Edward ES Nieuwenhuis, MD, PhD on behalf of the CAMEL-study group
The most frequently diagnosed food allergy in infancy is cow’s milk allergy, occurring in 2-5% of babies. The majority of these infants will become tolerant to cow’s milk by the age of three years, although children diagnosed with cow's milk allergy have an increased risk of developing allergic diseases later in life. It has been hypothesized that in Western society, this milk allergy is due to an imbalance of the healthy bacteria in the baby's intestine. In an upcoming issue of the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Hol et al report on their study of the effect of supplementing baby formula with probiotics (healthy bacteria thought to "seed" the intestine to restore proper function of immune cells in the intestine) as a means of encouraging a tolerance for cow’s milk in milk-allergic infants. The authors found that this type of supplementation does not accelerate the tolerance of cow's milk in allergic infants. Further study must be conducted to determine if these results are true of all probiotic supplements.
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