Indirect Basophil Activation Test for Peanut Allergy Diagnosis Using Human Donor Basophils

Abstract

The basophil activation test (BAT) is a promising test for the replacement of the expensive, time-consuming, and patient-unfriendly oral food challenge (OFC). However, the BAT requires a fresh blood sample which has to be analyzed within 1 day, which can be a logistical constraint. The indirect or passive basophil activation test (iBAT) with human donor basophils and patient serum that can be stored for a long time (1) enables laboratories to perform the assay at any time, (2) gives the possibility to analyze different allergens in the course of time without the need of a new blood sample, and (3) does not suffer from inconclusive results due to nonresponder basophils. The advantage of this iBAT with human donor basophils over the use of basophil or mast cell lines is that this iBAT can be executed without the need of laboratory facilities for cell culture.

Keywords: Diagnosis; Food allergy; Human donor basophils; Indirect/passive basophil activation test; Peanut allergy.