Title: Presence Of Specific IgE Antibodies To Ovomucoid In Infants With High Levels Of Egg White-specific IgE; A Marker For Persistence Of Egg Allergy?
Abstract: RATIONALE: The majority of children with egg allergy develop tolerance in early childhood. The purpose of this study was to determine the immunological differences between the infants who developed egg tolerance and the children with persistent egg allergy. In our previous study, the cutoff point for the egg white (EW) specific IgE level at initial evaluation for outgrowing the allergy at age 5 years was 23.25 KUA/L. METHODS: The egg allergic patients with EW-specific IgE above 23.25 KUA/L in infancy were divided into two groups: the patients who became tolerant to EW and the patients with persistent egg allergy by age 5 years. We performed EW-specific IgE western blotting with the stored serums of the patients during infancy. RESULTS: The patients with persistent egg allergy revealed the bands in the areas of ovalbumin, ovomucoid and ovotransferrin. However, the patients who became tolerant to EW had specific IgE antibodies to ovalbumin, but not to both ovomucoid and ovotransferrin. CONCLUSIONS: Only the infants whose egg allergy persisted by age 5 years had specific IgE antibodies to ovomucoid. The presence of specific IgE antibodies to ovomucoid in egg allergic infants with low probability of developing clinical tolerance, may be a marker for persistence of egg allergy.