Baker's asthma. Studies of the cross-antigenicity between different cereal grains.

Specific IgE antibodies were demonstrated in the sera of six bakers with respiratory symptoms of asthma or bronchitis by the radioallergosorbent (RAST) assay. The specificity of the antibodies was found to be directed not only against the common flours (rye, wheat) used in the bakeries but also against triticale, barley, oat, corn and rice in some of the bakers. By using the RAST inhibition tests, cross-antigenicity was shown to exist between different cereal grains. The degree of cross-reactivity closely paralleled their taxonomic relationship and appeared to be in the following order of decreasing closeness: wheat, triticale, rye, barley, oat, rice and corn. The allergenic activity in the rye and wheat extracts was found to be distributed among various fractions of different molecular weights.