Dermatologic and ocular diseasesEffects of complement inactivation and IgG depletion on skin reactivity to autologous serum in chronic idiopathic urticaria☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Study population
Fifteen patients with severe CIU and a positive skin test response to autologous serum (14 women and 1 man; age range, 19-58 years) were selected from our CIU patient cohort, which was composed of 132 individuals, 72 of whom had positive reactions to intradermal injection of autologous serum. The duration of urticaria ranged from 6 to 48 months, and all patients were under treatment with cetirizine associated in some cases with steroids. At the time of the study, none of the patients had been
Results
In all patients the prick test with histamine elicited positive results, whereas the injection of plain saline always elicited negative results. When autologous serum was injected, significant wheal-and-flare responses were observed in all 15 patients studied (Table I).
None of the native sera showed detectable amounts of anti-IgE autoantibodies (data not shown); on the contrary, it was possible to demonstrate the presence of variable amounts of anti-FcϵRIα antibodies in 14 of 15 sera, ranging
Discussion
In this study we extend the knowledge about the presence of anti-FcϵRIα IgG antibodies in the sera from patients with CIU and a positive skin test response to autologous serum. Moreover, we show, for the first time, that heat-decomplemented/IgG-depleted sera retain the ability to induce wheal-and-flare reactions.
The finding of anti-IgE and anti-FcϵRIα autoantibodies in sera of patients with CIU has been repeatedly reported. Anti-IgE antibodies, isolated3, 4, 5 or in association with anti-FcϵRIα
Acknowledgements
We thank Dr Rita Zamarchi and Raffaele Bendo, University of Padova, for their technical assistance.
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Supported in part by grants from Ministero dell’Università e della Ricerca Scientifica e Tecnologica, 60%.
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Reprint requests: Umberto Fagiolo, MD, Dipartimento di Scienze Mediche e Chirurgiche, Università degli Studi di Padova, Via Giustiniani, 2, 35128 Padova, Italy. fax +(39)049 821 2151; E-mail [email protected]