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Crucial cause of eczema during childhood discovered

Differences before eczema

The differences in amounts of SCFA’s were already present at the age of three months, but eczema did not develop in the majority of children before the first year. These results highlight the role bacterial metabolites may play in development of the immune system, even before clinical manifestations of allergic disease arise. The findings are in line with other studies that have shown the potential role of SCFA’s and butyrate in eczema (Bottcher et al 2000, Nylund et al 2014).

Butyrate

Butyrate plays an important role in the differentiation of regulating immune cells. Butyrate can be stimulated by prebiotics (non-digestible food ingredients that stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria) or indirectly by probiotics (live micro-organisms contained in food).

Biological mechanisms

Earlier, the researchers showed that clinical supplementation of a probiotic mixture (Ecologic PANDA) had a significant preventive effect on the development of eczema in high-risk children within the first three months of life (PandA study, Niers et al 2009). The effect lasted until the age of two.

To explain the underlying mechanisms, the researchers measured metabolites in faecal samples of these three-month old children. They found higher concentrations of faecal butyrate in healthy children, compared to those children that did develop eczema later in life. The researchers conclude that lower levels of SCFA seem to precede the clinical manifestation of eczema.

The researchers think that supplementation of multispecies probiotics induce higher levels of lactate and SCFAs, and lower levels of lactose and succinate. This might explain the temporary preventive effect of probiotics on the development of eczema. It gives a possible explanation for the biological mechanisms underlying the clinical found effects of probiotic bacteria in the PandA-project.