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The Allergic Response to Stinging Insects: Biochemical and Immunologic Studies on Bee Venom and Other Bee Body Preparations¹

From the Departments of Bacteriology and Immunology and of Medicine, School of Medicine, State University of New York at Buffalo, and the Allergy Research Laboratory of the Buffalo General Hospital, Buffalo, New York

Abstract

Bee venom obtained by a method of electric shock contains a purer antigenic fraction than is found in extracts of dissected venom sacs, for the venom sac extract contains larger quantities of body antigen than is found in venom itself.

Bee venoms from the United States, Mexico, England and Germany, seem to be antigenically identical.

Bee venom contains only one prominent antigenic component, and this component is specific for venom. It could not be found in the body.

Bee venom obtained by stinging contains body antigens in trace amounts that could be found only by hyperimmunizing rabbits and allowing the antisera to react with body extracts.

The trace body components found in bee venom may originate in the excreta or other debris deposited on the nylon cloth by bees during the act of stinging.

Footnotes

¹ This investigation was supported in part by Research Grants AM-04195 from the National Institute of Arthritis and Metabolic Diseases and AI-1303 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases, United States Public Health Service, Bethesda, Maryland.

This work was presented in part at a meeting of the American Academy of Allergy, February 15–17, 1965, Bal Harbour, Florida.

² Recipient of a Research Career Award (K6-AI-1377) from the United States Public Health Service.

³ Supported by Training Grant 2E-51 from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.