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Playing in dirt can be good for kids: Study
by Natalie James - November 23, 2009 - comments
Gallo said their findings provided a molecular basis to understand the "hygiene hypothesis" which suggests that exposure to bugs during early childhood guards an individual’s body against allergies
Los Angeles, November 23:Children should be allowed to play in the dirt because keeping the skin too clean might harm skin’s ability to heal itself, suggests a new research. Scientists have discovered that exposure to germs in early childhood could play a vital role in combating inflammation caused by the injury.
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) School of Medicine warn that our obsession with hygiene could be impairing our skin's ability to stay healthy.
Bacteria help maintain balance in the skin
By studying mice and human cells, research team found that bacteria are abundant, diverse and constant on the skin's surface and they help prevent rashes and damp down cuts and bruises.
The team suggests that common bacteria called staphylococci can reduce inflammation after we get hurt, when they are present on the epidermis, or outer layer of skin.
They say the bacteria trigger a pathway that prevents excessive inflammation after the injury.
"These germs are actually good for us," said Richard L. Gallo, professor of medicine and pediatrics, chief of UCSD's Division of Dermatology and the Dermatology section of the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System.
The background information in the study suggests that there are an estimated 100trillion microbes living on or inside the human body. Many are good for health, blocking dangerous bacteria from entering the body and strengthening the immune system.
The mechanism
Gallo and co-researchers found the harmless bacteria protects the human body by making a molecule called lipoteichoic acid or LTA, which acts on keratinocytes - the main cell types found in the epidermis.
The LTA keeps the keratinocytes in check, deterring them from mounting an aggressive inflammatory response.
Findings compliment "hygiene hypothesis"
Gallo said their findings provided a molecular basis to understand the "hygiene hypothesis" which suggests that exposure to bugs during early childhood guards an individual’s body against allergies.
He said: "The exciting implication of the work is that it provides a molecular basis to understand the hygiene hypothesis and has uncovered elements of the wound repair response that were previously unknown.
"This may help us devise new therapeutic approaches for inflammatory skin diseases."
"Hygiene hypothesis"
First introduced in the late 1980s, the "hygiene hypothesis" suggests that a lack of early childhood exposure to infectious agents and microorganisms increases a person’s susceptibility to disease by changing how the immune system reacts to such "bacterial invaders."
The hypothesis has previously been used to explain why allergies like hay fever and eczema were less common in children from large families, who were presumably exposed to more infectious agents than others.
It is also used to explain the increasing numbers of allergic diseases in more developed countries.
The study findings published in the advance on-line edition of Nature Medicine on Sunday.