 |
| (c) Dawny16161 Dreamstime.com |
The origin of these horses remains uncertain, with their additional name "Bashkir" stemming from the misconception that they were originally imported from Russia to America. Some theories suggest a Spanish immigrant origin in South America.
Established in 2010, Curly Farm Klappholz combines Dr. Wolfgang Mitlehner's medical practice specialising in internal medicine, allergology, pulmonary, and bronchial medicine with a holiday home and riding school featuring Curly horses. This facility provides a safe environment for allergic riders to interact with and ride Curly Horses.
Dr. Mitlehner has conducted studies on allergic patients who have ridden Curly horses to investigate their allergic responses to these animals.The work culminated in a report published in the journal Pneumologie
This collaborative study involved Susanne Mitlehner from Curly Farm Klappholz, Dr. Wolfgang Mitlehner, Alexandra Mitlehner, Hans Caspar Mitlehner, Peter Stoll, and Ines Swoboda from the University of Applied Sciences in Vienna, along with Monika Reissmann from Humboldt-University of Berlin.
The team examined the impact of exposure to Curly Horses on 141 patients allergic to horses by assessing their lung function and nasal patency during interactions with the animals. They discovered that repeated engagement with Curly Horses, including activities such as riding and grooming, resulted in a reduction in allergic riders' reactivity. This improvement was evidenced by enhancements in FEV1, PEF, and PNIF measurements.
PNIF, FEV1, and PEF are standard measures used to evaluate nasal obstruction, allergic rhinitis, and lung function, particularly in conditions like asthma.
Repeated interactions with Curly Horses, including riding and grooming, resulted in decreased reactivity among allergic riders, as evidenced by improvements in FEV1, PEF, and PNIF measurements.
Further visits, involving extended periods of riding totalling up to 40 hours or more, continued to reduce reactivity to Curly Horses. It's noteworthy that allergic reactions to horses occurred in only 72 out of 1312 riding hours, with the majority occurring within the initial ten hours of riding.
In a subset of 41 out of the 141 patients, additional investigation explored whether repeated exposure to Curly Horses could induce tolerance to other horses. These patients participated in a tolerance induction study and underwent annual testing for horse allergy using a nasal provocation test. The results revealed that exposure to Curly Horses led to immune tolerance to other horses in 88% of patients who completed the study.
Dr Mitlehner elaborates “To understand the mechanism causing hypoallergenicity, we performed IgE immunoblots to determine whether Curly Horse hairs contain IgE binding proteins.”
IgE immunoblots play a significant role in allergy diagnostics. By examining the pattern of IgE antibodies adhering to various allergens on the membrane, clinicians can identify the specific allergens to which a patient is sensitized. This information is vital for diagnosing allergies and formulating suitable treatment plans, such as allergen-specific immunotherapy (allergy shots) or recommendations for allergen avoidance.
The study revealed no differences in IgE reactivity between Curly and non-Curly Horses. Additionally, patients participating in the immune tolerance induction study did not exhibit reduced IgE reactivity to hairs from Curly or non-Curly Horses, despite having developed tolerance.
“However, we did find increasing levels of anti-horse IgG antibodies in the study patients.” Dr Mitleehner added.
“Overall, our data strongly suggests that continuous exposure to Curly Horses can induce immune tolerance, rendering these patients non-reactive to horses. The reason for the reduced clinical allergenicity of Curly Horses remains unclear, but the data suggest that blocking IgG antibodies may be of importance for immune tolerance development.”
For more details, see:
Horse allergy: Curly Horses can mediate immune tolerance
Alexandra Mitlehner, Caspar Mitlehner, Monika Reißmann, Peter Stoll, Ines Swoboda, Wolfgang Mitlehner
Pneumologie (2024); 78(01): 47-57
https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2101-9533
No comments:
Post a Comment