The prevalence of
food allergy is rising in the western world.
Allergen restriction is the chosen treatment in this condition, but continuous ingestion of the
antigen has shown positive results in clinical trials. In a previous study, we have shown several allergic and metabolic alterations after 7 days of
ovalbumin (OVA) ingestion by sensitized mice. The aim of this study was to investigate whether prolonged ingestion of
antigen by sensitized mice would reverse the metabolic consequences caused by experimental
food allergy. For this, allergic and metabolic parameters were analysed after prolonged ingestion of an OVA diet by OVA-sensitized mice. As shown previously, after 7 days of OVA consumption, sensitized mice showed increased serum levels of anti-OVA
immunoglobulin (Ig)E and
IgG1, aversion to the
antigen ingestion, marked body and adipose tissue
weight loss, followed by adipose tissue
inflammation and decreased serum levels of
adipokines,
glucose and
triglycerides. However, after 14 days of oral challenge, sensitized mice showed an anti-OVA
IgE level similar to the mice that were only sensitized, but the specific
IgG1 did not change. With this prolonged ingestion of OVA, sensitized mice were protected from OVA-induced
anaphylaxis when the
antigen was given systemically at a dose of 2 mg/animal. Moreover, various parameters analysed were significantly ameliorated, including adipose tissue
inflammation, body and adipose tissue loss, as well as serum levels of
adipokines and
triglycerides. Therefore, our data suggest that prolonged ingestion of OVA by sensitized mice results in an improvement of the metabolic consequences caused by experimental
food allergy.