The following is a summary of “How does global warming contribute to disorders originating from an impaired epithelial barrier?,” published in the December 2023 issue of Allergy & Immunology by Jeong, et al.

There is a barrier called the epithelial barrier between the host and the outside world. The skin, the digestive tract, and the upper and lower nasal systems are the first line of defense against outside threats. Over the past few decades, the number of chronic diseases like allergies and autoimmune disorders has risen sharply. For a study, researchers sought to look into the immune systems of these diseases’ underlying pathogens. 

All the studies came to the same interesting conclusion: epithelial walls have been broken. Because of global warming, extreme weather events like wildfires, droughts, floods, and longer and more irregular blooming seasons happen more often and are harder to predict. These natural tragedies are happening more often and can damage the epithelium barrier even more when there is pollution. When the epithelial barrier is broken, inflammation cells in the epithelium become active, and alarmin is made. This is called epithelitis. 

The “opened” epithelial barrier makes it easier for the external exposome to get into and under the epithelium. This causes inflammatory cells in the area to push the exposome out, which leads to chronic inflammation. These changes are linked to microbial dysbiosis, which means that opportunistic pathogens are spreading and commensals are decreasing. An important part of how many chronic inflammatory diseases start is how these cellular and molecular processes work. The study gave an overview of how global warming affected the functions of epithelial barriers in the setting of allergic diseases. More research needs to be done on how climate change affects the function of the epithelium barriers to learn more about diseases related to these barriers and make people more aware of the harmful things in their surroundings that can hurt their health.

Source: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1081120623005884