Abstract
Summary
A bovine cartilage preparation which has demonstrated therapeutic efficacy in accelerating wound healing in experimental animals and humans has been investigated for its potential antigenicity of the immediate type. Rabbits injected with an emulsion of this material with complete Freund's adjuvant did show the presence of precipitating antibodies while rabbits with implanted subcutaneous pellets showed no such activity. The precipitating antibodies produced did not cross react with human cartilage nor with other bovine tissues. Four groups of human subjects were tested intracutaneously with an aqueous extract of bovine cartilage. One laboratory worker with a history of clinical allergy and voluminous inhalation exposure of the material over a period of 8 years developed skin sensitizing antibody activity. Mild activity was demonstrated by 2 subjects who had received the cartilage therapeutically by topical application. These 3 subjects had no symptoms that could be attributed to sensitivity reactions to the cartilage preparation and demonstrated negative skin reactions when tested with purer cartilage material prepared more recently. There was no cross reactivity with other bovine material tested. No activity was found in 24 subjects who had received the cartilage topically and in 4 laboratory workers who had long term inhalation exposure despite the fact that some of these subjects presented histories of previous clinical allergies. The sera from 12 of the subjects were examined for precipitating antibody to bovine cartilage and none was demonstrable. It is concluded that while the cartilage preparation does have some capacity for inducing antibody formation of the immediate type, on the basis of the above experiments this capacity appears relatively weak. Further purification of the active principle to eliminate all antigenic potential should be possible.
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