L'ELETTOFORESI DI LINFOCITI NELLA DIAGNOSI DI ALLERGIA AL LATTE VACCINO

It has been shown that lymphocytes from subjects sensitized to an antigen have a reduced electrophoretic mobility after incubation with the same antigen. In the present study a test based on the measurement of the electrophoretic mobility of lymphocytes after incubation with milk proteins (alpha-lactalbumin, beta-lactoglobulin) has been developed to diagnose cow's milk allergy. Three groups of children were investigated: A) 13 children (age between 40 days and 2 years) with symptoms strongly suggesting a cow's milk allergy (chronic enteropathy with or without malabsorption, recurrent abdominal pains, eczema, shock, asthma) and with a complete remission of symptoms after the exclusion of milk from the diet. B) 10 children (age between 40 days and 6 years) with the same symptoms as the above group, but without any clinical improvement after the exclusion of milk from the diet. C) 11 healthy controls (age between 1 month and 27 years). Results are given in table 1 and fig. 1. Lymphocytes from the control group showed a marked increase of electrophoretic mobility, except one case in which the increase was +1.9%. Lymphocytes from patients of group B, showed an increase of electrophoretic mobility not significantly different from the controls. Lymphocytes from patients of group A, showed a marked reduction of electrophoretic mobility in 11 out of 13 cases. In one case the reduction was slight (less than 5%), while in an other no variation was seen. Differences between group A and group B, and between group A and group C are statistically significant (p