Figure 4.

Component-resolved diagnosis of a food allergy. Different sources of food allergens contain several allergenic molecules (components); these can be produced as recombinant proteins or purified from natural sources. These allergens can be classified into IgE-reactive components (green), which are poor activators of inflammatory cells and therefore induce little or no clinical reactions; components that induce mild or mainly local symptoms (yellow); and components that often are associated with severe and systemic allergic reactions (red). Microarray technology can be used to determine reactivity profiles of patients. This process can be used to identify individual allergens that cause disease and foods to which patients are most likely to respond. The severity of reactions also can be predicted.