IgE (γe) Globulins

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Abstract
IN 1921 Prausnitz injected Küstner's serum into his own skin. The latter had an allergy to fish, and the transfer of this sensitivity by intradermal serum injection followed by challenge with the allergen provoked a localized wheal-and-flare reaction. The experimenters were immortalized in what came to be known as the P-K test, and the skin-sensitizing antibodies measured by this means were termed reagins. In the ensuing four decades it became increasingly apparent that reaginic antibodies were rather bizarre, and they defied easy definition. No ordinary in vitro test could detect their presence in serum; they did not precipitate or fix . . .