Medical and Veterinary Entomology (2011) 25, 77–83 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2915.2010.00906.x Impact of Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus mite body raw material on house dust mite allergy diagnosis in a Serbian population L. B U R A Z E R 1 , K. M I L O V A N O V I C 1 , M. M I L O V A N O V I C 2 , O. V U C K O V I C 1 , T. C. V E L I C K O V I C 3 and M. G A V R O V I C - J A N K U L O V I C 3 1 Department of Allergy, Torlak Institute of Virology, Vaccines and Sera, Belgrade, Serbia, 2 Department of Allergology, Zvezdara University Medical Centre, Belgrade, Serbia and 3 Department of Biochemistry, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia Abstract. House dust mite (HDM) allergy has different clinical and immunological patterns in different geographic regions. The impact of raw material of commercial Dermatophadoides pteronyssinus (Acari: Pyroglyphidae) mite bodies on the quality of allergen extracts for allergy diagnosis in the Serbian population has not been previously evaluated. House dust mite bodies obtained from manufacturers in Europe, South America and Australia were used in the preparation of allergen extracts for in vivo diagnosis and serological analysis in a group of 14 HDM-allergic adults. In the group of mite-allergic patients, there was no statistically significant difference in skin test reactivity (Wilcoxon matched pairs test) among the three HDM body extract preparations. In a CAP inhibition assay, two extracts (A and C) achieved maximum inhibition of >90%, whereas extract B demonstrated a different inhibition slope and lower inhibition potential (80%). However, a remarkable difference in immunoglobulin E reactivity using Western blot analysis with individual patients’ sera was observed in one of the preparations (extract B). These findings emphasize the need for the careful selection of starting material for the preparation of HDM diagnostic reagents intended for use in patients from geographically distinct regions as these preparations can have implications on the selection criteria for patient-tailored immunotherapy of HDM allergy. Key words. Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, allergen extract, allergy diagnosis, house dust mites. Introduction The predominant species of house dust mite, of the genus Dermatophagoides, are a major cause of Type I hypersen- sitivity throughout the world (Tovey et al., 1981; Bousquet et al., 2007) and more than 50% of allergic patients are sen- sitized to this allergen source (Boulet et al., 1997). Mites (Acarina) are divided into Pyroglyphidae, referred to as house dust mites (HDM), and Glycyphagidae, referred to as Correspondence: Dr Marija Gavrovic-Jankulovic, Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Studentski trg 16, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia. Tel.: +381 11 3336 661; Fax: +381 11 2184 330; E-mail: mgavrov@chem.bg.ac.rs storage mites (Nathanson, 1969; Wraith et al., 1979; Iversen & Dahl, 1990). Since the mid-1960s, Pyroglyphidae mites have been established as the main source of house dust allergy (Voorhost et al., 1964; Thomas & Smith, 1998) with Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus (European HDM) and Der- matophagoides farinae (American HDM) identified as the most important sources of aeroallergens in temperate cli- mates (UCB Institute of Allergy, 1997; Bousquet, et al. 2004). Although it co-exists with D. pteronyssinus (Thomas et al., © 2010 The Authors Medical and Veterinary Entomology © 2010 The Royal Entomological Society 77