Barnacle hypersensitivity.

Background: the aim of the present study is to investigate the responsible mechanism of different adverse reactions suffered by five patients, aged between six and thirty years-old, after consumption of barnacle. The symptoms were angioedema, dyspnea, generalized urticaria, conjunctivitis and one of them suffered from anaphylactic reaction. Four patients had personal atopic history.

Methods: the allergic study included prick by prick test with raw and boiled barnacle and prick-test with a standardized battery of shellfish and neumoallergens, specific-IgE determination to barnacle, crustacean and house-dust-mite and SDS-PAGE immunoblotting to barnacle. Even though an oral challenge was proposed to three of the patients, they were reluctant to do the test and eventually the challenges were not carried out.

Results: prick to prick tests were positive to barnacle for all of them. Specific-IgE was found in four patients. The western blotting results showed an IgE-binding band whose apparent molecular mass ranged between 58 and 68 kDa.

Conclusions: barnacle could induce IgE-mediated adverse reaction. Our study has demonstrated the presence of an IgE-binding protein in barnacle extracts ranged between 58 and 68 kDa of molecular mass. It has not been previously described a crustacean allergen with the same molecular mass, so it could be a specific allergen from barnacle. We believe that further study will confirm this is the case.