Cladosporium herbarum Extract Characterized by Means of Quantitative Immunoelectrophoretic Methods with Special Attention to Immediate Type Allergy

Abstract

Freeze-dried extract of Cladosporium herbarum Link ex Fr. was obtained by growing, harvesting, extracting, centrifuging, dialysing and freeze-drying. Quantitative immunoelectrophoresis using rabbit antibodies revealed the extraction procedure to be reproducible and the extract to be composed of 57 antigens, none of which originated from the substrate used in the growth. The molecular weight distribution and the approximate molecular weight of some antigens of C. herbarum were obtained using gel filtration. The pI distribution and the approximate pIs of a few distinct antigens of C. herbarum were obtained by isoelectric focusing. Preliminary identification of 4 allergens from C. herbarum was performed by means of CRIE (crossed radioimmunoelectrophoresis).