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Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Senior Consultant Vibeke Brix Christensen, Rigshospitalet Copenhagen, Denmark
- Second opponent: Post. Doc. Christine Olbjørn, Akershus University Hospital,
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Associate Professor Eirik Nestaas, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor II Henrik Holmstrøm, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Associate Professor Runar Almaas, University of Oslo
Summary
Liver transplantation is an important treatment for liver failure and can be lifesaving. The patients are treated with lifelong immunosuppression after liver transplantation, but this treatment is also associated with complications like reduced kidney function, increased risk of infections and development of food allergy.
Development of new onset food allergies in children following liver transplantation is a common problem and the prevalence is higher after liver transplantation compared to other types of solid organ transplantation. The implications on the children’s lives range from moderate to severe with avoidance of the specific food expected to cause food allergy to carrying epinephrine in case of anaphylaxis after accidentally ingesting a food allergen. The mechanisms behind the new onset food allergies after liver transplantation are not known.
The aims of the thesis is to investigate the risk factors for development of food allergy in liver transplant children and whether the food allergy is accompanied by eczema, rhinitis or asthma. Further, we wanted to examine whether food allergies are accompanied by a change in circulating cytokine levels.
We interviewed parents and patients recording history of food allergy, asthma, rhinitis and eczema; measured blood levels of several parameters related to food allergy; performed cytokine analyses and assessed lung function in children after liver transplantation. The results have shown that the prevalence of food allergies after liver transplantation in children is high and that food allergy after transplantation is associated with asthma and eczema. No difference was found in the cytokine levels between liver transplant children with and without food allergy. Further, we found that the use of mycophenolate mofetil at 1 and 2 years after transplantation was associated with less reported food allergy and food sensitization, also when adjusted for age at transplantation.
Additional information
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