KINETICS OF ALLERGEN EXPRESSION IN CULTURES OF HOUSE-DUST MITES, DERMATOPHAGOIDES-PTERONYSSINUS AND DERMATOPHAGOIDES-FARINAE (ACARI, PYROGLYPHIDAE)

Laboratory cultures of house dust mites Dermatophogoides pteronyssinus (Trouessart, 1897) and Dermatophagoides farinae Hughes, 1961 were use d to study the population dynamics of the mites and the kinetics of an tigen appearance. The analysis of extracts obtained after different in cubation periods, carried out by SDS-PAGE, immunoblotting, and enzyme- linked immunosorbent assay, allows for the definition of 3 different g rowth phases: the latency phase (F1); the exponential growth phase (F2 ) during which the allergenic proteins, including the Der 1 and Der 2 major allergens, were expressed more intensely and in larger quantitie s; and a final phase (F3), death, in which the lowest rates of allerge nic components with a clearly different pattern were seen. The data ob tained from this work demonstrates that mite cultures during the maxim um growth phase (F2) contain the largest amount of allergenic componen ts as well as the highest major allergen concentrations.