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A comparable effect of hyposensitization treatment in hay fever patients with aqueous and repository allergens has been noted by many authors. The repository technique, however, offered a great saving of time and reduced the risk of overdose reactions. Two groups of hay fever patients treated four years either with aqueous or alum-pyridine allergens were compared. It was shown that there are certain differences not only in the effect of the repeated therapy with aqueous or alum-pyridine allergens, but also in the immunologic response of both groups of patients.

In the course of hyposensitization treatment, a decrease of clinical and skin sensitivity of hay fever patients is usually associated with an immunologic response in blocking and serologically active antibodies. Two different groups of hay fever patients were compared: 50 untreated patients with high hypersensitivity to timothy allergen and patients with the same hypersensitivity after four hyposensitization treatments. The sera of both groups were taken at the same time and refrigerated at the temperature of -40&degree;C. The severity of symptoms was milder in cases with increased immunoglobulin contents after the treatment was finished.

The allergen binding capacity of atopic sera is a function not only of reagimic, but also of other types of antibodies. Using radio isotopic methods it was possible to follow the binding of antibody with antigen and to look for the relationship between the binding capacity and the clinical state of the patient. It is known that to a certain extent the clinical sensitivity may be expressed by the skin sensitivity of the patients. From this viewpoint an indirect relation between the binding activity and the grade of skin sensitivity might be expected.