3105 Comparison Skin Prick Test Using Commercial and Native Extracts of Allergens in Diagnosis of Food Allergy

Tuesday, 6 December 2011
Poster Hall (Cancún Center)

Zbigniew Bartuzi, PhD , Department Allergology, Clinical Immunology and Internal Diseases, Collegium Medicum Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland

Katarzyna Napiórkowska , Allergology, Clinical Immunology and Internal Diseases, Collegium Medicum Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland

Magdalena Żbikowska-Gotz , Allergy, Clinical Immunology and Internal Diseases, Collegium Medicum Nicolaus Copernicus University, Bydgoszcz, Poland

Background: Patients with the birch pollen allergy frequently develop hypersensitive reactions to certain plant food. These reactions  result from the similarity of allergen proteins structure, which are sometimes  unbound phylogenetically .  The aim of this study was to investigate the diagnostic value of immunoblotting method for patients with pollinosis.

   Methods:  Fifty eight patients  were included in the study.  The clinical history,  the positive result of the skin prick test with the birch extract  and symptoms after consumption plant food were the condition for qualifications. The immunoblotting was performed for the  patients with the positive value of birch, apple, celery and/or carrot specific IgE to confirm the  cross-reactivity.

Results: Sera of 13 patients ( 18 patients were analyzed) revealed positive results in the immunoblotting method. Sera of only 12 patients revealed  the reaction against the birch pollen protein with a molecular weight 17-18 kDa corresponding to the main birch allergen Bet v 1. Sera of only 2 of these patients revealed the presence of antibodies cross-reacting with the  apple  protein with the same molecular weight, which may indicate the main allergens of these foods – Mal d 1. Serum of 6 patient revealed the presence of antibodies cross-reacting with apple and celery protein with the same molecular weight, which may indicate the main allergens of these foods – Mal d 1 and Api g 1. Serum of only one patient revealed the presence of antibodies cross-reacting with the  apple,  celery and carrot  protein with the same molecular weight, which may correspond the  main allergens of these foods – Mal d 1, Api g 1 Dau c 1.  Additionally sera of  6 persons demonstrated the presence of antibodies reacting with apple protein with the molecular weight 10kDa  which may correspond the lipid transfer protein  (LTP). Among some of the patients , antibodies which have  not been identified  so far ,reacted with   birch,  apple and celery proteins. 

Conclusions: Although the immunoblotting  is an effective method confirming the existences of the cross-reactivity,  it still  remains the method of verifying and supplementing other diagnostic tests, and a  negative result doesn't  exclude  the existence of this kind of allergy.