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Background: An in vitro elicitation test employing human high-affinity IgE receptor-expressing rat mast cell lines appears to be a useful method for measuring mast cell activation using a patient's IgE and an allergen; however, such cell lines are sensitive to human complements in the serum. We have recently developed a new luciferase-reporting mast cell line (RS-ATL8) to detect IgE crosslinking-induced luciferase expression (EXiLE) with relatively low quantities of serum IgE., Methods: A total of 30 patients suspected of having egg white (EW) allergy were subjected to an oral food challenge (OFC) test; then, the performances of EW-specific serum IgE (CAP-FEIA), EW-induced degranulation, and EXiLE responses in RS-ATL8 cells were compared using receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The patients' sera were diluted to 1 : 100, which causes no cytotoxicity when sensitizing the RS-ATL8 cells for the degranulation and EXiLE tests., Results: The area under the ROC curves was highest in the EXiLE test (0.977), followed by CAP-FEIA (0.926) and degranulation (0.810). At an optimal cutoff range (1.648-1.876) calculated from the ROC curve of the EXiLE test, sensitivity and specificity were 0.944 and 0.917, respectively. A 95% positive predictive value was given at a cutoff level of 2.054 (fold increase in luciferase expression) by logistic regression analysis., Conclusions: In contrast to in vivo tests, the EXiLE test appears to be a useful tool in diagnosing patients suspected of having IgE-dependent EW allergy without the risk of severe systemic reactions.

Genetically modified (GM) foods must be tested for safety, including by allergenicity tests to ensure that they do not contain new allergens or higher concentrations of known allergens than the same non-GM foods. In this study experimentally developed EGFP-transgenic chickens were used and evaluated the allergenicity of meat from the chicken based on a serological and two-dimensional difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) analysis. For the serological analysis, a Western blotting with allergen-specific antibodies and a proteomic analysis of chicken meat allergens with patients' sera, a so-called allergenome analysis, were used. The allergenome analysis allowed us to identify five IgE-binding proteins in chicken meat, including a known allergen, chicken serum albumin, and no qualitative difference in their expressions between the GM and non-GM chicken meat was found. Results of the 2D-DIGE analysis showed that none of the IgE-binding proteins in chicken meat were significantly changed in expression levels between non-GM and GM chicken, and only 3 of the 1500 soluble protein spots including green fluorescence protein were markedly different as a result of gene transfer. These above results showed that the combination of serological and 2D-DIGE analysis is a valid method of evaluating quality and quantity of allergens in GM foods., (Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)