Allergens in yellow jacket venom as determined by sephadex fractionation, enzyme and RAST assays

Yellow jacket venom (YJV) was fractionated on Sephadex G-50 and G-75 resulting in 9 fractions. These fractions were examined for enzyme and RAST activity using sera from 10 patients with known positive YJV RAST. Enzyme activity was found in four fractions. Enzymes associated with significant RAST activity were acid phosphatase, hyaluronidase, phospholipase A and phospholipase B. DNAase activity was found in one of the fractions associated with phospholipase A and B. Positive RAST activity was found in 8 of 9 fractions. The RAST patterns and relative RAST activities among the patients' sera examined were quite variable. The heterogeneity of the antibody response to the YJV fractions among the sera studied suggests that testing and treatment could not be successfully carried out in all patients using one or two predominant venom antigens.