Lymphocyte blastogenesis in children with cow's milk hypersensitivity after its elimination from the diet

The relationship between ingestion of cow's milk and lymphocyte transformation in cow's milk allergic children was studied. Fifty-six children were selected. Nineteen of them suffered from cow's milk hypersensitivity (HCM); 22 were allergic to several agents except to cow's milk (HOE) and 15 normal and healthy children composed the control group (NH). Lymphoblastogenesis was measured by tritiaded thymidine uptake and the cells were cultured with plasma from the same individual. The lymphoblastogenesis was indirectly estimated by the following equation: (formula; see text) where cpm I represents lymphoblastogenesis estimulated by PHA-M and cpm E represents lymphoblastic transformation with no antigen added to the culture medium. BTI was determined before and 30 days after the elimination of cow's milk from the diet. Lymphoblastogenesis, in the samples obtained before the elimination diet, was significantly increased (BTI decreased) in HCM group but not in the others (p less than 0.01). There was no difference in the lymphoblastogenesis behaviour of the three groups after 30 days of exclusion diet. The difference between the BTI values obtained before and after the elimination cow's milk from the diet would be helpful in the early diagnosis of cow's milk allergy.