Nichole Diaz

Editor’s summary Seminal studies have demonstrated that a farming lifestyle, such as that of the Old Order Mennonite (OOM) community, is associated with reduced incidence of allergies; however, the cellular mechanisms behind this association remain unclear. Here, Jackson et al. compared B cell and antibody responses in the blood, saliva, and stools of infants born in an OOM community or in urban and suburban Rochester, NY, USA.

Conflicts of Interest K.M.J. is supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Award Number U01AI131344 and R01AI163571. S.U.P., T.K., and B.K. are supported by NIH NIAID awards 1R01AI155630 and 1R01AI182001 and the Food Allergy Science Initiative (FASI). K.M.J. is a consultant for Janssen and Harmony/Milk Care and is an investigator on Aimmune, DBV, and Siolta trials.

Human milk can contain maternal diet derived food antigens, including Ara h 2 (allergenic peanut protein). Previous studies have shown that the kinetics of dietary protein secretion in human milk is highly variable between individuals which may explain why the impact of maternal diet on the development of atopic disease in offspring is unclear.