Allergic symptoms and microflora in schoolchildren.

We studied 867 junior high school children and administered a questionnaire documenting allergic symptoms and environmental variables, and measured Immunoglobulin E serum levels and the immunoglobulin G titers of serum antibody to microflora. A total of 716 subjects were ultimately used for statistics; those with at least two of the following allergic symptoms: asthma, rhinitis, eczema, or food allergy, showed significantly higher IgG titers to Bactroides vulgatus than other groups. This finding suggests that a species of the Bacteroides genus of the intestinal microflora tends to affect the gut issues, but further studies are needed to clarify this.