Search Here

A new research claims that a child's risk of contracting an allergic disease genetically doubles if a parent of the same sex has it.  According to Professor Hasan Arshad, a consultant in allergy and immunology at Southampton General Hospital, allergies such as asthma and eczema are gender related and not simply hereditary.

"We have known for decades that allergy runs in the family and many thought that maternal effect was greater than paternal effect due to a mother's closeness to her child, but we have discovered the inheritance is from mother to daughter and father to son," Prof Arshad was quoted as saying by Mail Online.

For the study, the researchers assessed 1,456 patients from birth 23 years ago and found that boys were more likely to have asthma if their fathers had the disease and girls' chances of contracting the disease raised if their mothers suffered from the condition.

The same was discovered for the contraction of eczema as well. There seemed to be a 50 per cent increase in the risk, if parents of the same sex had an allergy. 

"In the past, studies looking at the effect of parental allergy on children have not split their samples according to the sex of the child, having assumed the mother and father influence is identical in males and females," explained Prof Arshad, who is also chairman of allergy and immunology at the University of Southampton.

"Now, with these groundbreaking findings, we should see a change in the way we assess a child's risk of disease, asking girls for the allergy history of their mother and boys for that of their father."

"This work also opens up novel areas for further research in the genetics of allergy as to why this sex dependent effect occurs and, if we can find the reason, we can try to find a way of preventing sex-specific disease," he added.

Bevis Man, from the British Skin Foundation charity, welcomed the research.

"This news is very interesting and sheds light on how eczema from parents can ultimately affect their children. There has been a great deal of research over the past 10 years focusing on the genetics of eczema and the genetic defects that may lead to the development of eczema," he said.

"This news will hopefully spur a new wave of research looking into the differences between the sexes and the role in which a child is likely to develop the disease. Although a large proportion of children will simply 'grow out' of eczema, for many adults this is not the case, so any new developments in understanding the disease are most welcome," he added.

The research was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and funded by the National Institute of Health in the US.