RESUMO
House dust mites are the most important source of allergens in the tropical environment, and aqueous whole body extracts of these organ allergic diseases. However, it has been reported that mite excretions have a high allergenic activity. Because of this, we have evaluated spent house-dust mite culture medium as an alternative source of allergens from these organisms. We demonstrated that the extraction of allergens from this material is more efficient in alkaline solutions such as ammonium bicarbonate, and when the extraction process is extended to 48 hours. When the purification process is complemented with dialysis and ammonium sulphate precipitation, the toxicity of the extract decreases and its allergenic activity increases. The electrophoretic pattern of proteins of the spent culture medium extract showed bands that bound specific IgE antibodies, but this extract may be deficient in one of the principle allergens of mites, Der pII. The extract stimulates immediate hypersensitivity skin reactions in house-dust allergic patients, and produces RAST inhibitions with their sera. The allergenic activity of this extract is comparable to that of the 1st. International Standard isms have wide use in the diagnosis and treatment of for house-dust mite extracts. These results demonstrate that spent house-dust mite culture medium is an appropriate source of allergens from these organisms, and because of its low commercial value, may be an economical alternative for the production of allergenic extracts