A method of utilizing morphological changes in rat mast cells to determine reaginic antibody activity in bovine serum is described. This technique, which has been shown to be useful for the diagnosis of allergies in man, relies on the ability of antigen to degranulate mast cells sensitized with allergic serum. Experiments with radioactively-labelled allergic bovine globulin indicated the specificity of the binding of such proteins to rat mast cells. Cross-reaction between reaginic bovine antibody and human IgE was shown by a binding assay involving the uptake of 125I-labelled anti-human IgE globulin by mast cells incubated with bovine passive cutaneous anaphylaxis positive globulin.
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