Allergy to flea bites. V. Preliminary results of fractionation, characterization, and assay for allergenic activity of material derived from the oral secretion of the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis f

Abstract

Preliminary investigations of material obtained from in vitro-collected oral secretion of fleas have revealed several substances showing allergenic activity related to flea-bite hyper-sensitivity. The oral secretion was found to contain peptides, amino acids, aromatic compounds, phosphorus, and fluorescent materials. Gel filtration fractionation of the material showed that its allergenic activity was produced by a high-molecular-weight fraction (molecular weight of about 4000–10,000) and by a highly fluorescing aromatic fraction of molecular weight probably below 1,000. The low-molecular-weight aromatic fraction was further fractionated and its allergenic activity is suspected to be associated with a bright blue fluorescing material having an Rf of 0.6 in butanol-acetic acid, and migrating toward the anode on paper electrophoresis at pH 2.3.