title: Transcriptional Profiling of Egg Allergy and Relationship to Disease Phenotype.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Egg allergy is one of the most common food allergies of childhood. There is a lack of information on the immunologic basis of egg allergy beyond the role of IgE.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To use transcriptional profiling as a novel approach to uncover immunologic processes associated with different phenotypes of egg allergy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were obtained from egg-allergic children who were defined as reactive (BER) or tolerant (BET) to baked egg, and from food allergic controls (AC) who were egg non-allergic. PBMCs were stimulated with egg white protein. Gene transcription was measured by microarray after 24 h, and cytokine secretion by multiplex assay after 5 days.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The transcriptional response of PBMCs to egg protein differed between BER and BET versus AC subjects. Compared to the AC group, the BER group displayed increased expression of genes associated with allergic inflammation as well as corresponding increased secretion of IL-5, IL-9 and TNF-α. A similar pattern was observed for the BET group. Further similarities in gene expression patterns between BER and BET groups, as well as some important differences, were revealed using a novel Immune Annotation resource developed for this project. This approach identified several novel processes not previously associated with egg allergy, including positive associations with TLR4-stimulated myeloid cells and activated NK cells, and negative associations with an induced Treg signature. Further pathway analysis of differentially expressed genes comparing BER to BET subjects showed significant enrichment of IFN-α and IFN-γ response genes, as well as genes associated with virally-infected DCs.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Transcriptional profiling identified several novel pathways and processes that differed when comparing the response to egg allergen in BET, BER, and AC groups. We conclude that this approach is a useful hypothesis-generating mechanism to identify novel immune processes associated with allergy and tolerance to forms of egg.
authors: Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors: Roman
authors: R
authors: Kosoy
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors: Charuta
authors: C
authors: Agashe
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors: Alexander
authors: A
authors: Grishin
authors: Department of Pediatrics, National Jewish Health, Denver, CO, United States of America.
authors: Donald Y
authors: DY
authors: Leung
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States of America.
authors: Robert A
authors: RA
authors: Wood
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors: Scott H
authors: SH
authors: Sicherer
authors: Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children's Hospital, Little Rock, AR, United States of America.
authors: Stacie M
authors: SM
authors: Jones
authors: Department of Pediatrics, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, United States of America.
authors: A Wesley
authors: AW
authors: Burks
authors: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States of America.
authors: Wendy F
authors: WF
authors: Davidson
authors: EMMES Corporation, Rockville, MD, United States of America.
authors: Robert W
authors: RW
authors: Lindblad
authors: EMMES Corporation, Rockville, MD, United States of America.
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Dawson
authors: Oncological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors: Miriam
authors: M
authors: Merad
authors: Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors: Brian A
authors: BA
authors: Kidd
authors: Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors: Joel T
authors: JT
authors: Dudley
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors: Hugh A
authors: HA
authors: Sampson
authors: Department of Pediatrics, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors: M Cecilia
authors: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9051-9249
authors: MC
authors: Berin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016207:Cytokines / Q000096:biosynthesis; D021181:Egg Hypersensitivity / Q000235:genetics* / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D010063:Ovum / Q000276:immunology; D010641:Phenotype
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines