Monitoring of CD63% in basophil activation test and suggested new parameters for allergy diagnosis

摘要

The basophil activation test (BAT) is the only cellular test used to investigate basophil function for allergy diagnosis [1-4]. Most basophil activation tests (BATs) evaluate the percentage of basophils expressing the CD63 molecule on activation, in order to address a possible hypersensitivity reaction to an allergen; non-activated resting basophils do not express this tetraspanin on the cell surface but, on the contrary, cells up-regulate the molecule upon stimulation [5]. CD63 up-regulation can be related to basophil degranulation and histamine release [6], two main activation steps of basophils, which have made this molecule a good activation marker for providing a reliable test of cellular function for allergy diagnosis.