HLA-DR3 is Associated with the IgE Immune Responsiveness to a Recombinant Allergen from Blomia tropicalis (BT)

Abstract

Mite-induced asthma is the commonest form of allergic asthma (AA), being allergens from house dust mites important risk factors for suffering acute attacks. The “IgE-hyperresponsiveness to mite allergens” can be considered as a central phenotype of mite-induced AA. It is easily identifiable (patients’ exposure to house dust, skin test (ST), RAST and mite-extract nasal and bronchial provocation) and is determinant of the patho-genesis of atopic asthma, including the generation of the bronchial inflammation that supports airways hyper responsiveness. According to the results of recent genetic linkage studies, overall IgE production in allergic diseases like asthma can be under the influence of genes located at chromosomes five and 11, while specific IgE responsiveness to several environmental allergens is supposed to be controlled by the Human Major Histocompati-bility Complex (HLA) and genes coding for TCR.We showed previously that IgE hyper responsiveness to the mite Dermatophagoides ssp. in AA patients is HLA-linked (1). We have also found that the gene HLA-DPB 1*0401 is remarkably absent (2) and HLA-DR3 is increased among mite-induced AA patients (3). The present work was done to investigate if these results were the same using a recombinant allergen from Bt.