Electrophoretic and ultracentrifugal analysis of hay-fever-producing component of ragweed pollen extract

424

THE

Intracutaneous tests determining in advance should

be treated

Electrophoretic H. H.:

with Fraction wlric*h patients

OF

ALLERGY

-

2 on hay fever patients might are apt to have constitutional

be helpful reactions

in and

cautiously. and

of Ragweed

JOURNAL

Ultracentrifugal

Pollen

J. Physical

Analysis Abramson, 192, 1942.

Extract. Chem.

46:

of Hay-Fever-Producing H. A., Moore, D.

Component H.,

and

Gettner,

The authors present data on the electrophoretic analysis, the sedimentation constants, and the diffusion constants of some of the electrophoretically homogeneous allergenic constituents of giant and dwarf ragweed pollen. These components are colorless, negatively charged, and highly skin reactive and produce hay fever and asthma. They exhibit the property of slow mobility, and when ultracentrifuged at about 150,000 times gravity, a sedimentation constant that is low and smaller than the smallest sedimentation constant given in Swedberg and Pedersen’s table of proteins. This unpigmented fraction also diffuses rapidly as compared with proteins like serum albumin. The above properties indicate this component has a low molecular weight, which is calculated by the authors to be about 5,000. On the basis of chemical reactions with different protein preeipitants, they believe the molecule is proteinlike in character, possibly a polypeptide. The low value of the molecular weight fits in with the fact that the active material is easily introduced into the skin by electrophoresis. In addition to the major unpigmented fraction, electrophoretic studies also indicate the presence of four to six minor pigmented components, which migrate fast and are skin reactive. Preliminary experiments with timothy grass extract indicate the presence of a major unpigmented and several minor pigmented components, all of which have the properties of the corresponding components found in the ragweed extracts.

Electrophoretic J. Invest.

Skin Dermat.

Studies. 5:

I. Reaction

to

Common

Five persons, four of whom were clinically sensitive to give positive skin react,ions to extracts of timothy, grass, June grass, and red top when these exbracts were electrophoresis. These skin reartions, in general, are produced

by the same

Grasses.

Shilkret,

H.

H.:

11, 1942.

extracts

with

the

scratch

to grass pollen, were found orchard grass, sweet vernal introduced into the skin by parallel to those reactions

or intradermal

technique.

Results in the Treatment of Hay Fever. A Comparison of the Results of Preseasonal and Perennial Methods of Treatment of Ragweed Hay Fever. Markow, H.,

and

Rosen,

E. A.:

M.

Rec.

155:

203,

1942.

This study is a report of 188 cases of ragweed hay fever treated in 1940 and included only patients who were receiving their third or more consecutive year of treatment. The perennially treated group was composed of 118 patients, 87 per cent of whom had had satisfactory results from treatment, while the preseasonally treated group, which consisted of 70 persons, showed a satisfactory result in 77 per cent. A further analysis of these patients, based upon the number of years each patient had received treatment prior to the 1940 season, showed that in those patients receiving their third to eighth consecutive year of treatment, the perennial method yielded results superior to the preseasonal method. The patients who had received nine or more years of treatment by 1940 showed equally good results with both met,hods of treatment. However, the number of patients in this group was small.