Scientists at Bristol University studying food allergies are hoping a new Leica DM R microscope will take them one step nearer to solving an immunological riddle
Mick Bailey, lecturer in mucosal immunology in the department of Clinical Veterinary Science at Bristol University, said: "The mystery is not, why are some individuals allergic to food proteins, but why aren't we all?" "Most of the food we eat is broken down into amino acids but small quantities are absorbed intact from the intestine.
Nutritionally, this is insignificant, but immunologically it is very significant.
If you were injected with that amount of protein, you would mount an immune response to it.
And if this followed in the gut, our intestines would be continually ripped apart by allergic reactions." The team is using a new Leica DM R research microscope with a triple pass fluorescence filter for its work.
A technique developed in-house allows them to label three distinct cell types with different fluorescent dyes.
Dr Bailey explained: "The combination of a 100 watt UV bulb and a high sensitivity camera means that we can view three colour immunofluorescence almost real time and see cellular interactions in the tissues." So why do so few people suffer food allergies? "The answer seems to be that we switch off our immune responses to harmless proteins," said Bailey.
His group is trying to discover what mechanisms are involved in deciding whether antigens are harmful, ie, associated with pathogens, or harmless, ie, associated with food and commensal bacteria.
The failure of these mechanisms has been linked to diseases such as Crohn's and ulcerative colitis as well as to conditions like atopic eczema and simple intolerance of certain foods.
