Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-06-18

Pathogenesis of Type 1 Diabetes - Testing the Hygiene Hypothesis

Objective

Preliminary data indicate that there is a strong association between the incidence of immune-mediated diseases and improving standard of living and hygiene. One of the steepest gradient in standard of living worldwide is present at the border between Russian Karelia and Finland with a sevenfold difference in the gross national product, while Estonia represents a country in rapid transition. These three populations comprise a “living laboratory” providing a unique possibility to test the hygiene hypothesis in the development of immune-mediated diseases. The incidence of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is six times lower in Russian Karelia than in Finland, whereas there are very limited differences in the frequency of risk HLA genotypes in the background population. This proposal aims at comparing (i) the frequency of beta-cell autoimmunity and other organ-specific autoantibodies; (ii) the frequency of IgE-specific sensitisation and signs of allergy; (iii) the frequency of various infections; (iv) the gut microbial flora; and (v) dietary intake in young children between the three populations. The birth cohort arm of the study aims at (i) delineating the ontogeny of the immune system by using modern tools of functional genomics; (ii) comparing the functional characteristics of regulatory T cells; (iii) characterising the gut microbial colonisation in infants; (iv) assessing the timing of exposure to foreign proteins in infancy (v) defining the interrelations between dietary factors, gut microbial flora and acute microbial infections. The objectives will be approached by studying 1600 children at the age of 3 and 5 years and by observing a birth cohort comprising about 320 subjects with HLA-conferred susceptibility to autoimmunity from birth up to the age of 3 years in each country. This proposal is expected to provide new data on the reasons and mechanisms behind the increasing rates of T1D and other immune-mediated diseases seen in most developed countries after World War II.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: https://op.europa.eu/en/web/eu-vocabularies/euroscivoc.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-HEALTH-2007-A
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

CP-FP - Small or medium-scale focused research project

Coordinator

HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
EU contribution
€ 1 604 372,00
Address
FABIANINKATU 33
00014 HELSINGIN YLIOPISTO
Finland

See on map

Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

No data

Participants (11)

My booklet 0 0