Establishment and Application of the Abdominal Wall Method (AW Method) for Induction and Detection of Immediate Allergy.

Abstract

Previously, we proposed an original mouse anaphylactic model using the abdominal wall as a site for both the induction and estimation (AW method). The anaphylactic intensity was estimated by VPV (vascular permeability value) corresponding to the given diameters of the dye-permeated area on the abdominal wall. In this paper, we investigated both the theoretical fundamentals and the application of the AW method for the detection of antigens and anti-allergic substances in food. Theoretically, VPV (1) reflected the IgE-dependence of the anaphylaxis high sensitively, (2) linearly increased with the dose of challenging antigen, and (3) decreased in a dose-dependent manner by oral preadministration of diphenhydramine hydrochloride. Furthermore, the VPV was shown to be dependent on the histamine concentration injected into the abdominal wall of normal mice. For the application of the AW method, existence of allergens was confirmed significantly after challenge with food (i. e., egg, milk, or soybean ; or processed foods prepared from these materials) in mice sensitized previously with the preceding food. Mice sensitized with a known antigenic protein exhibited significantly an antigen-specific anaphylactic reaction after challenge with food containing the same antigen. The optimum dose for sensitization and interval for detection were 50 μg/mouse and 9 d for both ovalbumin and hen egg lysozyme, while β-lactoglobulin needed 500μg/mouse and 14 d. It can be concluded that AW method is widely applicable for the detection of the known and unknown allergens in foods, simply, high sensitively, reproducibly, and quantitatively. In addition, the AW method was shown to be available for the search of anti-allergic substances in foods, and for the screening of anti-allergic drugs.