Abstract:
Most food allergies are caused by eggs and cow's milk. These foods are used in children's diets and are usually used in the composition of many food products.
The objective of our work is to verify the existence of intestinal and/or hepatic histological alterations following immunization with β-lactoglobulin or ovalbumin.
For this purpose, 48 female Balb/c mice aged 6-week-old are divided into 4 groups of 12 mice each. The first and second groups are sensitized intraperitoneally with β-lactoglobulin (β-Lg) and ovalbumin (OVA) respectively, while the third and fourth groups constitute the control groups (adjuvant-only).
Characterization of tissue damage (intestine and/or liver), induced by the allergens is carried out by histological analysis under light microscopy after staining the tissues with haemalun-eosin.
Our results showed that:
• Intraperitoneal immunization with β-Lg or OVA caused an alteration of the mucous membrane resulting in a change in the structure of the intestinal epithelium.
• The villi height of mice immunized with β-Lg or OVA was significantly decreased compared to control mice (p < 0.05 and p < 0.01 respectively).
• Sensitization with food allergens (β-Lg or OVA) led to histological changes of the liver characterized by the presence of pycnotic nuclei and an inflammatory infiltrate as well as ballooning of the hepatocytes.
All of these results showed that intraperitoneal immunization with β-Lg or OVA induced a structural modification at the intestinal and hepatic levels.
