Abstract
INTRADERMAL skin testing of appropriately immunised guinea pigs results in specific hypersensitivity reactions of the 24 h delayed type. As controls, we routinely skin test non-immune animals. We have found that skin testing itself can cause specific sensitisation for delayed time course reactions in normal guinea pigs. Skin testing non-immunised animals with the protein antigen keyhole limpet haemocyanin (KLH) leads, within several days, to striking macroscopic lesions at these primary (1°) injection sites in all animals. We have termed these responses ‘flare reactions’, and have found on histological examination that they contain large accumulations of basophils. Overall, these flares resemble hypersensitivity reactions with a delayed time course termed ‘cutaneous basophil hypersensitivity’ (CBH)1. As proof that skin testing per se can specifically sensitise, we obtained serum from animals with these cutaneous basophil flare reactions and carried out intravenous transfers to non-immune recipients who then received a KLH skin test. Delayed 24 h CBH reactions which were specifically elicited by this native protein antigen, were uniformly transferred by immune serum.
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ASKENASE, P., HAYNES, J., TAUBEN, D. et al. Specific basophil hypersensitivity induced by skin testing and transferred using immune serum. Nature 256, 52–54 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/256052a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/256052a0
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