| Summary: | To estimate the levels of serum IgE that is actually able to be bound to FcεRI, we developed a novel enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using a recombinant soluble form of the human FcεRIα ectodomain (soluble α-ELISA). We evaluated the levels of FcεRI-bindable serum IgE in normal volunteers and in patients with atopic dermatitis and bronchial asthma, and compared them with those of total IgE measured by a conventional sandwich-ELISA. There was a striking difference between the IgE values evaluated with these two ELISA systems. In most of the sera, the IgE values evaluated with the soluble α-ELISA were substantially lower than those evaluated with the sandwich-ELISA. Our results indicate that all serum IgE (especially in hyper-lgE sera) does not necessarily bind to the FcεRI and that it will be useful to evaluate FcεRI-bindable IgE for further analysis of allergic states.
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