Penicilloyl-dextran conjugates as reagents for skin testing in penicillin allergy

A procedure for implanting amino groups in the dextran molecule is described. The aminated polymer prepared from a dextran sample with a molecular weight of 20,000 was found to contain approximately 16 amino groups per molecule. Similarly to polylysine, the aminated dextran may be penicilloylated by incubation with penicillin at high pH. The penicilloyl-dextran (P-Dex) conjugate prepared in this way was found to contain approximately 8 penicilloyl (PO) groups per molecule. P-Dex was found practically nonimmunogenic in rabbits and showed itself antigenically active in precipitin, passive hemagglutination and passive cutaneous anaphylaxis (PCA) tests performed with a PO specific antiserum. A good correlation was found between the skin tests performed parallelly with P-Dex and penicilloyl-polylysine (PPL) in four subjects with penicillin allergy.