Allergic disease is an important occupational health concern with work related asthma and allergic contact dermatitis among the most frequently diagnosed occupational illnesses. The development of rapid and sensitive methods for hazard identification of the responsible agents is critical. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs 20-22 nucleotides long whose primary function is to regulate gene expression by functioning as endogenous inhibitors of protein translation. Allergic disease is characterized by an imbalance between Th1 and Th2 cytokines; however the role of posttranscriptional mechanisms like the ones regulated by miRNAs is just starting to be explored. These studies describe the kinetics of miRNA expression during the sensitization phase of an allergic response following dermal exposure to prototypical chemical sensitizers in a mouse model. Using microarray and other data, six miRNAs were identified for further analysis with RT-PCR including mi-21, 22, 210, 155, 133a, and 27b. These data demonstrate that miRNAs may have a central role early in the allergic response focused on establishing the fine balance of Th1 verses Th2 responses to chemical sensitizers. Identification of unique miRNA expression profiles may help to elicit the mechanisms by which exposure to sensitizing chemicals induce immune cell activation and can potentially help to identify biomarkers for new treatments and preventions.
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the CDC website.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal website.
Linking to a non-federal website does not constitute an endorsement by CDC or any of its employees of the sponsors or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy policy when you follow the link.
CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.
For more information on CDC's web notification policies, see Website Disclaimers.
CDC.gov Privacy Settings
We take your privacy seriously. You can review and change the way we collect information below.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not know when you have visited our site, and will not be able to monitor its performance.
Cookies used to make website functionality more relevant to you. These cookies perform functions like remembering presentation options or choices and, in some cases, delivery of web content that based on self-identified area of interests.
Cookies used to track the effectiveness of CDC public health campaigns through clickthrough data.
Cookies used to enable you to share pages and content that you find interesting on CDC.gov through third party social networking and other websites. These cookies may also be used for advertising purposes by these third parties.
Thank you for taking the time to confirm your preferences. If you need to go back and make any changes, you can always do so by going to our Privacy Policy page.