Meat allergy: III--Proteins involved and cross-reactivity between different animal species.

BACKGROUND

Although relatively infrequent, meat allergy represents a serious problem for children both because it is generally associated with intolerance to other protein sources and because of the suggested role of meat in stimulating the gastrointestinal development during weaning.

OBJECTIVE

With these considerations, the aim of our work was to improve biological-biochemical knowledge of meat allergy.

METHODS

This study was performed using in vivo skin prick test (SPT) and in vitro (electrophoresis associated with the immunoblotting technique) tests.

RESULTS

Bovine serum albumin (BSA) and actin were the proteins most frequently involved in binding with the circulating IgE. BSA involvement was confirmed by SPT; the high number of positive responses observed with actin in immunoblotting was not confirmed by SPT data. Cross-reactivity between serum albumins from different animal species was demonstrated. Our studies show that in this group of children, the correspondence between the percentage of sequence identity (phylogenetic similarity) and the number of positive responses was surprisingly high.

CONCLUSIONS

Although further studies are necessary, the data reported here provide new biochemical data on meat allergy.