Antigenic composition of hen's (Gallus domesticus) egg white

Studies on the Atopic Allergen in Hen's Egg

“…These findings indicate that ovomucoid has weak immunogenic properties. R odríguez-Burgos and O teiza [21] obtained similar results. They immunized rabbits subcutaneously with 1 nil egg-white (plus 1 ml incomplete Freund's adjuvant) at weekly intervals during 7 weeks.…”

“…With the antisera thus obtained 22 antigenic components were detectable. The immuno-clectrophorctic pictures revealed, however, only a very weak line with ovomucoid [21].…”

“…The strong line at the anodic side is ovalbumin, the weak line with the same mobility as ovalbumin is probably seralbumin (hen's scrum albumin) identified recently by R odríguez-Burgos [21], the «,-component is fiavoprotein-apoprotcin, «2 has the same mobility as the n2-l,75 antigen of R odríguez-Burgos [21], the /?, component is probably lysozyme, the /i2 antigen has an electrophoretic mobility comparable to that of ovoinhibitor. Ovomucoid obtained from boiled eggs (VE 6) and that purified by means of column chromatography on CM-cellulose (VE 9) also contained (traces of) ovalbumin.…”

“…Figures 2 and 3 showed some immuno-electrophoretic pictures of ovomucoid samples with antisera raised in rabbits against crude ovomucoid and egg-white proteins respectively. Figure 2 revealed in some ovomucoid preparations the presence of ovalbumin and in VE 20 also a postalbumin -probably avidine -could be detected [21].…”

“…Ovomucoid obtained from boiled eggs (VE 6) and that purified by means of column chromatography on CM-cellulose (VE 9) also contained (traces of) ovalbumin. Fraction VE 63 proved to contain ovalbumin and component «2-1,75 [21], A point of special note is that antisera raised in rabbits to fresh eggwhite did not give precipitation arcs with purified ovomucoid. This may become evident from figure 3 which shows the immuno-clectrophorctic pictures of purified ovomucoid with an anti-egg-white serum.…”