FLOUR PROTEIN ANTIGENS IN OCCUPATIONAL FLOUR HYPERSENSITIVITY

Thirty serum samples from clinical cases of flour hypersensitivity wer e analyzed for wheat or rye flour protein antibodies. The patients inc luded 20 bakers and 10 others who also had occupational flour exposure . Twenty-three cases had antiflour antibodies which recognized antigen s other than control sera in the flour protein patterns. The immunolog ic response of individual cases seemed very variable in view of the nu merous differences between the cases in the antigen-antibody reactions . For the practical purposes, the flour protein antigens were divided in three groups, i.e., those larger than 80 kDa, those between 80 and 50 kDa and those smaller than 50 kDa. Cases with flour-induced dermati tis (n = 8) showed sensitization towards antigens in all size classes while those with rhinitis or asthma showed more antigens with a molecu lar weight less than 50 kDa. The test offers a possibility to independ ently verify an exposure to flour while it does not substitute for the conventional immunologic diagnostic tests.