Milk hypersensitivity due to advers

Milk hypersensitivity due to adverse reactions to milk proteins is among the major public
concern of food allergies. In present investigation, comparative assessment of humoral
and cell mediated immune responses in mice associated with allergenicity of major milk
proteins (casein and -lactoglobulin) of cow, buffalo and goat were carried out. Caseins
of all three species of dairy animals appeared to be less immunogenic and allergenic than
their corresponding -lactoglobulins. Cow milk proteins (caseins and -lactoglobulin) were
observed to increase protein specific IgE sensitization as well as lymphocyte proliferation
index significantly (P < 0.01) as compared to buffalo and goat milk proteins. On the other
hand, buffalo and goat milk proteins similar to cow’s proteins raised remarkably higher
(P < 0.01) immunogenic response in terms of IgG levels than the negative control group.
The results obtained were correlated with B and T cell epitopes of milk proteins cited in
literature after multiple alignment in silico. Thus present study suggests cow milk proteins
(-lactoglobulin and casein) are highly allergenic among the milk proteins of three species
of dairy animals.