PURIFICATION OF EGG-WHITE ALLERGENS

Purification procedures for the four egg-white proteins ovomucoid, ovo transferrin, ovalbumin, and lysozyme are presented with reference to m echanistic studies at epitope levels of allergic reactions to these pr oteins. The applied procedures resulted in four preparations containin g less than 0.1% contaminating proteins each. The purified protein pre parations were characterized by SDS-PAGE and by crossed immunoelectrop horesis with polyclonal antibodies raised against an egg-white extract or the purified proteins. The necessity of these well-characterized p roteins in studies on allergic reactions was shown by testing human se ra in immunoblots of lysozyme, and by immunoblots of ovomucoid probing with antibodies against the proteins.