Expression of CD14 and Toll-like receptor 2 in farmers' and nonfarmers' children

Children of farmers are at decreased risk of developing allergies. Results of epidemiological studies suggest increased exposure to microbial compounds might be responsible for this reduced risk. Alterations in adaptive immune response are thought to be the underlying mechanism. We measured expression of receptors for microbial compounds known to trigger the innate immune response. We showed that blood cells from farmers' children express significantly higher amounts of CD14 (0.96 vs 0.43, p = 0.0013), and Toll-like receptor 2 (0.11 vs 0.04, p < 0.0001) than those from nonfarmers' children. We propose that the innate immune system responds to the microbial burden in the environment and modulates the development of allergic disease.