RESUMO
It is widely known that the cockroach is an inhalant allergen in atopic asthma and allergic rhinitis. Even though Bla g I and Bla g II are considered as the major allergens, several relatively high-molecular weight (MW) cockroach allergens have also been recently identified by IgE-immunoblot in western countries. However, the environmental control and diagnostic tests mainly focussed on Bla g I and Bla g II. Furthermore there is no data about major IgE-binding cockroach antigens in Korea. We performed this study to identify the major German cockroach allergens in Korean atopic children. By the results of allergy skin tests, 14 children with atopic asthma (9 were cockroach-sensitive and 5 were cockroach-nonsensitive atopics) were enrolled in this study. We conducted IgE immunoblot and autoradiographic analysis using Yonsei-extract of German cockroach antigen produced in our laboratory, individual sera from 9 cockroach- sensitive children, and the pooled sera of 5 house-dust-mites-only-sensitive children. We performed an allergic skin test to cockroach mix, and a radioallergosorbent test (RAST) using German cockroach crude extract on all subjects. German cockroach-specific IgE was detected in 6 out of 9 subjects by RAST. We identified at least 15 IgE-binding protein bands, and among them, the components of MWs of 76, 64, 50, 38, and <14 kilodaltons (kDa) were the major German cockroach allergens in study subjects. Therefore, Bla g I (25-30 kDa) and Bla g II (36 kDa) could not be the absolute indicators of German cockroach sensitization and parameters of environmental control.