CAT AND DOG DANDER ALLERGENS CAUSING TYPE I HYPERSENSITIVITY IN ASTHMATIC AND OTHER ALLERGIC PATIENTS

Allergens extracts from cats and dogs dander were prepared by extraction, followed by purification and fractionation by gel filtration. One major peak was obtained from cat dander with a molecular weight 35KDa, where as two major peaks were obtained from dog dander with a molecular weight 21 and 18 KDa. Total and specific IgE ELISA test was performed on 137 patient’s sera samples. The rate of the total IgE positive ELISA results was (72.99%). From the total IgE positive, it was found that the rate of the specific IgE positive ELISA results was 49% in case of patients examined with cat dander and 29% in patients examined with dog dander. There was significant difference (P<0.05) among different age groups regarding the number of patients who had specific IgE positive results, where the highest rates were observed in male and female of 10-30 years of age. In addition, a significant difference (P<0.05) was observed between cat and dog allergy and also among the people who were living in urban and rural area. There is a cross-reaction between the cat and dog danders, extracts and the IgE binding capacity of cat and dog danders, protein extract was high since lower concentration of these extracts was needed to inhibit up to 50% of IgE specific binding sites to the allergosorbent.