Cow's milk allergy and eczema: patterns of the antibody response to cow's milk in allergic skin disease

Abstract

The pattern of the humoral-immune response to cow''s milk was examined in children with eczema and in children who had acute urticarial and/or angioedematous reactions to cow''s milk. Each patient group was comapred to a group of age-matched controls. Whereas the eczematous patients had significantly elevated IgG, IgA and IgE milk-antibodies, patients allergic to cow''s milk had elevated IgE milk-antibodies. These differences in the pattern of antibody response to cow''s milk suggest that these 2 patient groups constitute separate allergic populations, and different pathogenic mechanisms may be operative in these 2 skin diseases associated with elevated levels of IgE antibodies to cow''s milk.