Project II rough draft: Cells and Allergies

Jesse Forrester
Professor Ann-Marie Yerks
Composition 106
12 February 2009
Cells and Allergies

A student majoring in biology will research and study many topics surrounding evolution, the human body, cells, and the environment. To follow this major, I chose to first read an article based around cells and allergies. Using these two topics, I researched and found two additional articles that are also based around cells and allergies, though in different ways. The articles explain many changes in the human body, such as atopic dermatitis of hyperserotonemia, which have an effect on an individual’s allergies and their reactions. The following will summarize the three articles I read and what I learned while reading them. Each article is different in its own way, though the bridge between them all serves a link that largely includes the discussion of allergies and how the body is affected on a cellular level.

Per Brandtzaeg, author of “why we develop food allergies” from American Scientist (2007) and member of the American Scientist journal, suggests that there are many causes to food allergies, rather than just one. She develops her thesis first by concentrating on the immune systems of babies and how allergies develop at a young age, second, on oral tolerance and the effects of breast feeding opposed to cow milk, third, the secretory imnninogloblin A (SIgA) system and its effects at controlling the risk of food allergy, and lastly, the roles of t-cells in an immune system and their multiple effects on allergy tolerance. Brandtzeg’s purpose in her article is to show how the development of allergies is largely responsible for the malfunctioning of SIgA antibodies, an individual’s family history, and the origin country of the infant. By publishing an article largely based around infants and their allergic path from birth, Per Brandtzaeg has established a relationship with her audience of mothers and critics who search to find answers concerning their allergy wellness. This article taught me that many of the activities, such as breast feeding, diet, and the immune system of an infant is a large cause of food allergy. In addition to my leanings, I found it interesting that each individual has antigen-presenting cells that are the decision makers in the immune system and can cause immunity of certain food allergies.

The three authors, Lisa Forbes, Rushani Saltzman, and Jonathan Spergel, of the article “Food allergies and Atopic Dermatitis: Differentiating Myth from Reality” from Periodic Annals (2009), argue that children with moderate to severe Atopic Dermatitis have a larger chance of also acquiring food allergies, then children without Atopic Dermatitis. They explain their argument by first explaining the mechanisms causing food related reactions, second, by relating these mechanisms to food reactions in children with atopic dermatitis, third, explaining how to evaluate an individual (physically and through their history) when determining if their reactions are allergy and atopic dermatitis related, and lastly, by performing studies on over 50 patients to determine if those with atopic dermatitis show signs of food allergy as well. Their purpose is to prove that patients who have atopic dermatitis need to be evaluated for food allergies, and do this by using the topics discussed above. The article has allowed the authors to create a relationship with their audience of individuals who have atopic dermatitis, and seek to find a link between their disease and food allergies. After reading this article, I found it interesting that a large amount (over 40 percent) of the studied patients who have this skin disease actually had food allergies as well and did not know it. Furthermore, these patients then found out that many of their skin outbreaks, initially diagnosed as atopic dermatitis, was in response to eating a food they were allergic to.

In their essay “Hyperserotonemia in Egyptian autistic children: Relation to allergic manifestations” from Journal of Pediatric Neurology (2008), Gehan Mostafa, Dalia El-Sherif, Rasha Hamza, and Abeer Shehab suggest that hyperserotonemia, a syndrome that results in elevated serotonin levels in the body, is the reason behind the increased frequency of allergic manifestations in autism children. They support their position by first giving an introduction to autism and its effects on the body, second, by performing a large control-based study on 80 children, half of whom were autistic and the other healthy, which examined their serotonin levels and how these levels related to the amount of allergic manifestations, third, by doing a discussion to announced their findings during the study. In this article, their purpose is to prove children with autism and who suffer from elevated serotonin levels in the body are exposed to an increased severity in allergic reactions. This article develops a relationship with mothers hosting an autistic child or children with allergies, who are concerned for their child’s health and strive to decrease the intensity of their allergic reactions. After reading some of the study statistics, I was shocked to find out that 75 percent of children with autism and hyperserotonemia, showed a higher frequency of allergic reactions than those without hyperserotonemia. In addition, I found it interesting that out of males and females who both had autism and hyperserotonemia, all males were found to have high frequency levels of allergic reactions than the females.

Each article proposed a different thesis, though all are similar in that they include allergies in the human body. Strongly emphasizing on biology, the authors manage to support their thesis by taking their experiments and proof down to the cellular level. In addition to experiments, the articles contained a large amount of background knowledge to give the reader a full understanding of the topic. I thought the articles were well developed and allowed critics, such as myself, to obtain research information and summarize them easily.