Cleanliness may be tied to diabetes in children

Theory proposes vaccine to spur immune system

Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News

Published June 27, 2007 at midnight

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A new study finding Type I diabetes on the rise in children has the study's author mulling that kids might be too clean for their own good.

The "hygiene hypothesis" says that as hygiene has improved, our bodies' immune systems might take longer to mature.

The delay in maturing an immune system that can effectively send antibodies to parts of the body that might need them could be behind the rise in Type I diabetes, multiple sclerosis and other diseases, the hypothesis goes.

"It's a very plausible explanation," said Dr. Dana Dabelea, associate professor of preventive medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, the lead author of the study that appears in this week's edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. "Nobody has tested it so far, but it does make sense."

The study, "SEARCH for Diabetes in Youth," is the first large- scale look at the prevalence of both Type I and Type II diabetes in youths of different ethnicities.

It found that about 15,000 children and teens in the U.S. are diagnosed with Type I diabetes each year. Type I usually arises in kids 6-14 and typically is associated with the pancreas going haywire, unable to control the supply of insulin that regulates sugars.

Dr. Mikael Knip, professor of pediatrics at the Children's Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, told ABC radio that as mothers get fewer viruses, they pass on to their offspring immune systems unpracticed in fighting infections. Therefore, the immune systems are more likely to attack healthy cells, including pancreas cells.

The solution: to develop a vaccine that spurs the immune system to fight what it should.

Anglo youngsters are slightly more likely to contract Type I diabetes than are black or Hispanic youths, while Asian and American Indian youths have the lowest rates, the study found.

Among 10- to 14-year-olds, the differences are more marked. One in every 3,000 Anglo kids in that age group contracts Type I diabetes, while one in 5,000 black or Hispanic kids do, and the prevalence among Asians is even lower, Dabelea said.

scanlon@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-442-8729

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