Effects of Heat and High-Pressure Treatments on Antigenicity of Beef Extract

The sera of bovine gamma globulin (BGG) positive beef allergic patients were used in this study in order to investigate changes in IgE-specific binding activity with regard to beef extract altered by heat or high-pressure treatment. In inhibition-ELISA, the sample treated at 60°C did not show any significant changes in the antigenicity of BGG, but the sample treated at 100°C showed a decrease of the antigenicity. In the case of the treatment with heating at 100°C, heat-coagulation occurred in the beef extract. The resulting supernatant and precipitate of the sample by centrifugation were analyzed by immunoblotting. Only the fraction of precipitate showed a specific binding activity with the sera. Based on this result, it was speculated that the persistent antigenicity found even after the treatment at 100°C in inhibition-ELISA remained principally in the heat-coagulated fraction, which indicated the importance of the method of handling the heat-coagulation in heat treatment. High-pressure treatments (200 ...