Attempts at characterizing the allergens of cat saliva and fur.

In the framework of a wide program aimed at identifying various animal allergens, it was deemed interesting to study cat fur and saliva antigens. Cat fur and saliva extracts were prepared. Cat saliva antiserum was raised in rabbits with cat saliva as antigen. Immunochemical techniques such as isoelectric focusing, blotting, CIE, CRIE, fused rocket immunoelectrophoresis, line immunoelectrophoresis were implemented in order to identify the allergens and their isoelectric point, to perform the antigenic and allergenic characterization of the candidate allergen, to define their molecular weights and last, but not least, to carry out the quantitative assay towards a standard. On the whole the results obtained, besides confirming some previous results, pointed out by literature (presence of Cat 1 and albumin in the extracts) do stress the presence of other allergens, and the possibility to implement isoelectric focusing and blotting, which avoids the use of animal antisera, for the allergen detection in biological materials.