Allergy to white potato has rarely been described. We report two cases of atopic patients, housewives, in whom peeling raw potatoes precipitated rhinoconjunctivitis and asthmatic attacks, and, in one of them, contact urticaria. Type I hypersensitivity to raw potato antigens was demonstrated by means of immediate skin test reactivity, specific IgE determination by RAST, basophil degranulation, histamine release test and an immediate bronchial provocation test response to raw potato extract. The controls did not react to any of these tests. Potato allergenic constituent is currently being investigated but, as far as we know, it is heat-labile and has an MW of more than 10 Kd.
Sera from patients with suspected mite sensitivity were assayed using both the radioallergosorbent test (RAST) and a reverse enzyme immunoassay for IgE antibodies (REIA). Of the 133 sera studied, the RAST gave positive results in 48 cases and the REIA in 59. Negative results for both assays were obtained in 72 of the sera. The immunoenzymatic assay described here, using micro-plates as solid phase, has proven to be IgE- and antigen-specific. The allergen conjugate has a prolonged shelf life and the method is easy to perform. The sensitivity of the REIA for Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus IgE antibodies is limited by the small amount of IgE bound by the well surface (less than 100 ng). However, we think that the method offers a reliable alternative for the diagnosis of D. pteronyssinus-allergic patients.
A radioimmunoassay was employed in order to quantitate IgE on the basophil surface in 6 normal and 10 pollen sensitive subjects. A basophil-rich fraction obtained from whole blood in a Ficoll gradient was incubated with specific anti-IgE; the inhibition produced by surface IgE was measured on a standard inhibition curve. Atopic patients had on the average about 10–30 times as many IgE molecules per basophil as control subjects. Total and specific IgE as well as degranulation by Lollium perenne crude extract were also studied in both populations and their results compared with those of basophil IgE quantitation.
A microplate enzyme-immunoassay technique for the detection of specific anti-Loliumperenne IgE antibodies is described. This method consists of coating polystyrene wells with goat antihuman IgE (epsilon chain specific) and later selecting the IgE from the patients serum in order to finally reveal the bound specific IgE by means of a crude L. perenne extract conjugated with peroxidase. The optimal conditions necessary to achieve maximum sensitivity and specificity using this system have been studied. After testing 98 sera, the results showed a 97.9% correlation between our technique and the RAST.
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