[Baker's asthma. Experimental studies]

Baker's asthma is one of the most commonly reported occupational lung diseases in countries, and is characterized by rhinitis, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and reversible airflow obstruction. The development of a mouse model could be useful in order to characterize the development and progression of baker's asthma.

Experimental studies evidenced that flour dust elicits neutrophilic inflammation in a tlr4-independent manner, suggesting that endotoxin is not playing a role in the inflammatory response to flour dust. Moreover, bakery flour dust and dust extract significantly enhance pre-existing allergic asthma in OVA sensitized and challenged mice.

Bakery flour dust is strongly pro-inflammatory, can cause non-allergic airway inflammation, and can enhance allergen-mediated airway inflammation.