A Non-Specific Cutaneous Sensitivity Which is Passively Transferable with the Serum to the Normal Human Skin

Abstract

Prausnitz and Küstner (1) demonstrated that the serum of a fish-sensitive individual with positive cutaneous reactions possessed the power of specifically and locally sensitizing normal skin. This finding has been shown to be generally applicable to atopic sensitivity to antigens and has served as a basis for the indirect method of testing for hypersensitiveness (2). In this technic, it has generally been accepted that when the reaction on the sensitized site is greater than that of the control test on normal skin, a specific sensitivity has been transferred with the injected serum. In the course of studying more than 200 cases of atopic hypersensitiveness by the indirect method of testing, the writer has found 3 sera which, when injected into normal skins, induce a non-specific hypersensitiveness; that is, the resulting reaction in the sensitized site is greater than that obtained on a normal site with the same intracutaneous test, regardless of the substance with which the injected site is subsequently tested intracutaneously.