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J Allergy Clin Immunol 1999 Sep;104(3 Pt 1):589-594

Breast-feeding, maternal IgE, and total serum IgE in childhood.
Wright AL, Sherrill D, Holberg CJ, Halonen M, Martinez FD
Respiratory Sciences Center, Arizona Health Sciences Center, the Department of
Pediatrics and Steele Memorial Children's Research Center, the Arizona
Prevention Center, and the Department of Pharmacology, University of Arizona.
[Record supplied by publisher]

BACKGROUND: There is controversy regarding the relationship of the effect of
breast-feeding on markers of allergy such as total serum IgE in childhood.
OBJECTIVE: This study, using longitudinal data, tested the hypothesis that the
relation of breast-feeding to IgE in childhood differs depending on maternal
total IgE level.
METHODS: Total serum IgE was assessed with the paper
radioimmunosorbent test at 4 ages in nonselected children enrolled at birth into
the prospective Tucson Children's Respiratory Study. Children were classified as
never breast-fed, breast-fed less than 4 months, or breast-fed 4 months or
longer, on the basis of physician report or questionnaires completed by parents
by the time the child was 18 months old. A longitudinal random effects model was
used to test for group differences and temporal trends in IgE for children
classified with reference to maternal IgE (high tertile vs all others) and
breast-feeding history. A total of 664 children with 1457 observations were
included.
RESULTS: Among children whose mothers were in the 2 lower tertiles of
IgE, breast-feeding was associated with lower total serum IgE at age 6 years
(24.2 vs 44.3 IU/mL for never breast-fed children; P <.02); similar trends
existed at age 11 years. In contrast, for children whose mothers were in the
highest tertile of IgE, breast-feeding of 4 months or longer was associated with
higher IgE levels in the child compared with those never breast-fed or
breast-fed less than 4 months (97.0 vs 38.9 IU/mL; P <.005). These
cross-sectional analyses were confirmed with the longitudinal random effects
model, which also showed no effect of confounders. Paternal IgE showed no
similar relation with child IgE.
CONCLUSION: Breast-feeding appears to have
paradoxic relations with IgE in childhood, depending on maternal IgE level.
These findings may help explain the contradictory results found in other
investigations of the relation of breast-feeding to allergic symptoms and
markers.
PMID: 10482832

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