CLINICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND SENSITIZATION PROFILE OF PATIENTS ALLERGIC
TO COW EPITHELIUM
Abstract
Background: Allergy to cow epithelium (ACE) is of great
importance in professions whit highly exposed to cattle, such as cattle
farmers, veterinarians, being a health problem in this population,
because it is their main livelihood. Objective: Characterize
the main clinical manifestations and define the sensitization profile of
the population allergic to cow epithelium treated in our health area.
Methods: Retrospective study including a total of 34 patients
with clinical diagnosis of ACE, confirmed by skin tests, IgE levels
specific to bovine epithelium and specific allergenic conjunctival
provocation test. Age distribution, sex, profession, clinical symptoms,
specific IgE levels for other mammalian epithelia, pollens, mites and
food. immunoblotting was performed with extracts of cow dander, cow
milk, cow saliva, cow urine, and bull urine and 17 sera from patients
ACE previously untreated. Results: The mean age of the patients
was 38 years, with a slight predominance of males, and with a higher
incidence in cattle farmers/ farm workers. Rhinoconjunctivitis occurred
in 100% of all cases. 35% of the patients were monosensitized to cow
epithelium, the most frequent profile was the association between
sensitization to cow epithelium and dust mites and/or pollens (41 %).
Sera from most ACE patients show a 20 KDa IgE binding band to cow
epithelium, cow saliva, and cow and bull urine, which surely corresponds
to the major allergen Bos d2 (bovine lipocalin). 70% of ACE patients
also detected an IgE reactive band of approximately 25 KDa in cow and
bull urine extracts, Research with protein databases led to the
identification of the protein band as a Bos Taurus lipocalin (UniProt
Protein ID: A0A3Q1LGU7_BOVIN)