Environmental and Occupational DisordersHLA associations with occupational sensitization to rat lipocalin allergens: A model for other animal allergies?☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Methods
Between September 1999 and May 2001 we carried out cross-sectional surveys of employees at 6 pharmaceutical companies in the United Kingdom. The ethics committee of Royal Brompton Hospital/NHLI approved the study, and written informed consent was obtained from all volunteers. Any current employee identified from health surveillance registers as having had at least 1 month's contact with rat proteins was considered eligible. Each such employee was asked to complete a questionnaire, undergo skin
Results
At univariate analysis, cases were twice as likely to be atopic as referents (Table I). They were also more likely to have entered an animal housing facility on a daily basis, but they were less likely to have worked in the highest exposure job category. Rates of sensitization differed among the 6 sites. The prevalence of work-related chest symptoms was much higher among those sensitized (42% vs 3%).
The distributions of HLA genotypes by case status are shown in Table II; shown alongside, for
Discussion
To date, this is the largest study of HLA associations with specific symptoms and sensitization to a single species of laboratory animal. Sensitized individuals were twice as likely to be HLA-DRβ1*07-positive and half as likely to be HLA-DRβ1*03-positive. These associations were independent of age, sex, and broad indicators of exposure. HLA-DRβ1*07 was also, and more strongly, independently associated with work-related chest symptoms. Among employees similarly exposed to rats in their work,
Acknowledgements
We thank the management and staff at each survey site for allowing the department to undertake surveys on their premises, and we thank all of the individuals who carried out the fieldwork. We also thank the National Asthma Campaign for funding this work.
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Cited by (0)
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This work was funded by the National Asthma Campaign.
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Reprint requests: Meinir G Jones, PhD, Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College (NHLI), 1B Manresa Rd, London SW3 6LR, United Kingdom.