Fungal microbiome diversity in urban forest decreases asthma and allergic inflammation

초록

Background: Recent attention has been directed towards un-derstanding how exposure to green areas in residential urbanenvironments can impact asthma morbidity. Limited and in-consistent results have explored the link between exposure togreenness and asthma, highlighting the need for further re-search in this area. We analyzed airborne fungal microbiomefrom the urban forests and urban centers to better understandhow airborne microorganisms affect asthma and allergic in-flammatory responses.Method: Fungi were isolated from air samples collected from25 forests and 4 urban centers in Seoul Metropolitan City anddiversity of fungal microbiome was analyzed. The number ofasthma episodes in each district in Seoul Metropolitan Citywas examined using data from the National Health Insurance.Allergic inflammatory responses of fungi from the urban forestsand centers were measured using human mast cells (HMC-1)and experimental asthma animal models.Results: Fungal microbiome diversity in urban forests was sig -nificantly higher than that of the urban centers. A significantinverse correlation was observed between the number of urbanforests per each district and asthma episodes among residents.Allergic inflammation in the activated HMC-1 cells and lungsof asthma animal model were significantly suppressed by thefungal strains isolated from the urban forest samples comparedto those from the urban centers.Conclusion: Fungal microbiome diversity particularly fromthe urban forests plays a role in reduction of asthma morbid-ity and can modulate allergic inflammation. Residential prox-imity to urban forests was positively associated with currentasthma, potentially indicating a role in reducing allergic in-flammation through the diversity of the fungal microbial flora. These findings support the increasing public recognition ofurban forest as an essential component of health-supportiveenvironments.Conflicts of Interest: The authors did not specify any links ofinterest.