Cats Can Hamper Breathing Even in Non-Allergic

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But Dr. Jerry Shier, an allergist and an assistant clinical professor at George Washington University School of Medicine, in Washington, D.C., said that the European study is likely to spur additional research. That may lead allergic patients to lend more weight to their doctor's recommendations against pets -- even if "they aren't yet allergic to animals yet," he said.

Shier also suggested that schools and other public places where cat and other allergens are likely to be present should give more attention to cleaning hard surfaces and avoiding carpeting.

He noted that cat allergens are particularly widespread because they are "stickier," smaller and lighter than other allergens, which makes them easily airborne. As a result, a person could be exposed without being in the presence of cats. That's why Chinn's group found cat allergen to be ubiquitous in the mattress dust of both cat owners and non-owners.

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What makes people with allergies who are not allergic to cats still sensitive to the animals' allergens? No one is quite sure.

The question deserves "a closer look," said Dr. Marc Riedl, an assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles. One reason cat allergens may have a wider impact is that these small airborne particles, which can be a quarter of the size of dust mites, "are much more likely to have access to the lung than other allergens," he said. Consequently, cat allergens could have wider effects that have nothing to do with allergic sensitivity per se.

Then there are substances called endotoxins. Endotoxins break down portions of bacteria that in turn stimulate the immune system, Shier explained.

The study raises the question of whether endotoxins -- which have been found at higher levels in cat owners' homes -- might be the cause of increased bronchial responsiveness observed in ostensibly non-cat-allergic people, he said. "There [also] may be some other unknown entity that comes from the cat that may be responsible for triggering the bronchial hyperactivity," he added.

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