It has been long known that in high concentrations, LPS and endotoxins result in sepsis and possibly death. In the last decade it has been shown that endotoxins play an important role in allergy-development (Simpson and Martinez, 2009).
High levels of endotoxin in the living environment play a protective role in atopy-development in people with a socalled C-allele of the CD14-gene, but not in people with a T-allele in the CD14-gene. This shows that endotoxin is not just a “bad” protein, to be avoided in any mite-product, but that it has different effect in different populations, defined by their CD-14-genotype.
From the field we got the advice to keep the endotoxin-level of our mites constant (Wayne Thomas, CIA, 2008). On the side, endotoxins are not the only natural allergy-active adjuvant, (1→3)β-D-glucan also plays a role (Simpson and Martinez, 2009). This is a cell wall component of fungi like Aspergillus and Agaricus (mushroom-types), but not a cell wall component of yeast.
