Wheat Allergy Test

£40.00

Description

Wheat Allergy Test

Code: f4
Latin name: Triticum aestivum
Source material: Untreated planting seeds
Family: Poaceae (Gramineae)
Common names: Wheat, Common wheat, Bread wheat
Synonyms: Triticum hybernum L., Triticum macha Dekap. & Menab., Triticum sativum Lam., Triticum sphaerococcum Percival, Triticum vulgare Vill

Wheat is a food which may result in allergy symptoms in sensitised individuals.

Wheat Allergy Test: Allergen Exposure

Wheat is one of the most important grain crops and staple foods worldwide, and is represented in the greater part of diets across the globe.

It is a robust grass, originally selectively bred by early agricultural societies, and over time has been further crossbred to produce increasingly higher yields.

Common wheat, the best known and most widely cultivated of the wheats, is cultivated for the grain and used whole or ground. it is processed into wheat berries or kernels, wheat bran, wheat flakes, flour, and wheat germ.

Wheat also is the source of alcoholic beverages such as beer, and the industrial alcohol is made into synthetic rubber and explosives.

Wheat Allergy Test: Allergen Description

A number of proteins present in wheat have been identified, and can be divided into three main groups: albumins, globulins and glutens.

Allergens which have been identified and characterised include a profilin, a lipid transfer protein, a hevein-like protein, a chitinase, a thioredoxin, an alpha-amylase inhibitor and a glutenin, among others.

Wheat Allergy Test: Potential Cross-Reactivity

An extensive cross-reactivity among the different individual species of the genus could be expected. Studies have also reported various degrees of cross-reactivity among different wheat allergens.

Considerable similarity has been reported among the major allergenic protein of maturing rice seeds, barley trypsin inhibitor, and wheat alpha-amylase inhibitor.

Although extensive cross-reactivity can be expected among the varieties of wheat, einkorn wheats, particularly T. monococcum, are suspected to be less toxic than bread and pasta wheats to patients with coeliac disease.

Cross-reactivity has been reported not only among the flours of wheat, rye, barley and oats, but also corn and rice.

A lipid transfer protein, found in spelt, was reported to be highly homologous to other LTPs from wheat, barley, rice, maize and peach.

Wheat Allergy Test: Clinical Experience

Wheat is among the 6 most important food items accounting for hypersensitivity reactions in children.

Special adverse reactions to Wheat protein include:

Baker’s asthma (an IgE-mediated reaction to inhaled flour from wheat and other grains)

Coeliac disease, a non-IgE-mediated enteropathy caused by wheat gliadin

Wheat-dependant exercise-induced asthma or anaphylaxis

The onset of adverse reactions may be immediate, delayed, or both immediate and delayed.

Differences in the specific allergens, the routes of sensitisation, and the end-organ responsiveness have not been completely understood or elucidated.

Wheat hypersensitivity has been reported in both occupational and non-occupational settings and may occur to wheat or wheat flour.

Sensitisation to wheat by ingestion can lead to food allergy symptoms and wheat-dependant exercise-induced asthma, whereas sensitisation by inhalation can cause baker’s asthma and rhinitis. Wheat exposure may result in life-threatening anaphylactic reactions.

Food-dependent exercise-induced cholinergic urticaria to wheat has been described.

Wheat allergy may result in or exacerbate atopic eczema.

Allergic contact dermatitis from hydrolyzed wheat protein in cosmetic cream has been reported.

Chronic urticaria to ingestion of wheat has been reported.

Other reactions

Various wheat and soy protein sources, including the soy protein isolates used to make infant formulas, may be related to juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.