To examine whether allergy status is one of the causes of the observed significant differences in immune responses of PBMCs, we performed a subgroup analysis on children with negative RAST results (n= 32) and differences in the following variables remained statistically significant between the two groups: RV1B induced IFN-γ (P= 0.018), HDM stimulated IL-1β and IL-6 production (P=0.002, P= 0.001, respectively) and as well as LPS induced IFN-γ and IL-1β release (P= 0.009 and P=0.005, respectively) (Table S3). This evidence concerns the gene IL1B and allergic disease.