그래, 니 잘 났다

(뉴욕 브루크린 지하철역의 쥐구멍에서 잠시 나온 미국 쥐새끼)

A rat comes briefly out of its hole at a Brooklyn subway stop on Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005, in New York.

Two studies indicate rats living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems that

their squeaky clean cousins that live in antiseptic labs. (AP Photo Photo/Julie Jacobson, FILE)

멋진 아니 신기한 연구 조사 하나가 뉴욕에서 발표되어논란이라네요.더러운 곳이나

농장에서 살고 있는 쥐와 무균처리된 완벽하게 깨끗한 실험실에서 자라는 두 그룹의 쥐를

대상으로 조사를 했는 데 인간에게 준 교훈은 " 깨끗한 생활이 우리를 병들게 한다 ".

더러운 곳에 살고 있는 쥐들에게 자극을 주었을 때 이들의 면역체계는 전혀 반응없이 가만히

앉아 있어 아무런 변화가 없었는데 반해 완벽하게 깨끗한 무균 실험실의 쥐는 동일한 자극에

지랄발광을 했다고 한다. 이번 연구조사로 17년간 지속되온 이론인 "위생상태가설론"- 인간의

면역체계는 질병이나 더러운것에의해서는 도전받지 않는다-이 상당부분 훼손될 것이라한다.

위생화된 서구사회에서 알레르기, 천식, 자동면역질병, 루머치스 등이 급격히 증가하는 추세이며

특히 옛날엔 정혀 아무런 반응을 받지 않던 작은 꽃가루에도 인간의 자연 방어체계가과민반응

을 나타낸다고 한다.완벽하게 깨끗한 환경의 쥐가 지나칠 정도로 과민 반응했으나더러운

환경의 쥐는 아무런 반응을 나타내지 않고 그냥 그대로 있었으며 결정적인 세균에만 반응했다고

한다.다음 실험으로는 50피터 크기의 더러운 환경을 만들고 완벽한 환경의 쥐를 이주시켜 이들이

어떻게 면역체계에 변화를 일으키며 또 어느 시점에서 면역체계의 변화가 오는지를 조사한다고

한다. 이 실험을 통하여 고의적으로나 무의식적으로 더러운 곳에더러나지 않은 채 원래의 생활

더러운 환경에서 살아갈 때의 혜택을 밝힐 것이라고 한다. 그러고 보면 안티 미스코리아도 상당한

선견지명인 듯도하다. 좀 생뚱맞긴해도이런 격언이 생각난다. 지나치게 맑고 깊고 깨끗한 물에는

고기가 살지 안는다고, 주일인 데어디 더러운 교회가 없을까 모두들 번들거리는 예배당뿐이니,

아 그 영혼들의 환경이나 교회의 영적 상태 말고요 건물환경 말이외다

Rat study shows dirty better than clean

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Fri Jun 16, 10:56 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Gritty rats and mice living in sewers and farms seem to have healthier immune systems than

their squeaky clean cousins that frolic in cushy antiseptic labs, two studies indicate.

The lesson for humans: Clean living may make us sick.

The studies give more weight to a 17-year-old theory that the sanitized Western world may be partly to blame for soaring

rates of human allergy and asthma cases and some autoimmune diseases, such as Type I diabetes and rheumatoid

arthritis. The theory, called the hygiene hypothesis, figures that people's immune systems aren't being challenged by

disease and dirt early in life, so the body's natural defenses overreact to small irritants such as pollen.

The new studies, one of which was published Friday in the peer reviewed Scandinavian Journal of Immunology, found significant differences in the immune systems between euthanized wild and lab rodents.

When the immune cells in the wild rats are stimulated by researchers, "they just don't do anything they sit there; if you give them same stimulus to the lab rats, they go crazy," said study co-author Dr. William Parker, a Duke University professor of experimental surgery. He compared lab rodents to more than 50 wild rats and mice captured and killed in cities and farms.

Also, the wild mice and rats had as much as four times higher levels of immunoglobulins, yet weren't sick, showing an immune system tuned to fight crucial germs, but not minor irritants, Parker said. He said what happened in the lab rats is

what likely occurs in humans: their immune systems have got it so cushy they overreact to smallest of problems.

"Your immune system is like the person who lives in the perfect house and has all the food they want, you're going to start worrying about the little things like someone stepping on your flowers," Parker said.

Challenged immune systems ? such as kids who grow up with two or more pets ? don't tend to develop as many allergies, said Dr. Stanley Goldstein, director of Allergy & Asthma Care of Long Island.

Parker said his study has drawbacks because he can't be sure that the age of the wild and lab rodents are equivalent, although he estimates the ages based on weight. He also could not control what happened in the past to the wild rats

to see if they had unusual diseases before being captured and killed.

It would have been more useful had Parker studied extremely young wild rodents because, according to the hygiene hypothesis, that's when the protection from dirty living starts, said Dr. Stuart Levy, director of the Center for Adaptation Genetics and Drug Resistance at Tufts University.

Human epidemiological studies have long given credence to the hygiene theory, showing that allergy and asthma rates

were higher in the cleaner industrialized areas than in places such as Africa. Parker's studies, looking at animal

differences, may eventually help scientists find when, where and how environmental exposure help protect against

future allergies and immune disorders, said Goldstein, and Dr. Jeffrey Platt of the Mayo Clinic in Minn., both of whom

were not part of Parker's studies.

Parker said he hopes to build a 50-foot artificial sewer for his next step, so that he could introduce the clean lab rats to

an artificial dirty environment and see how and when the immunity was activated.

That may be the biggest thing to come out of the wild and lab rodent studies, Platt said: "Then all of a sudden it becomes possible to expose people to the few things (that exercise the immune system) and gives them the benefit of the dirty environment without having to expose them to the dirt."