Does absorption across the buccal mucosa explain early onset of food-induced allergic systemic reactions?

To our knowledge, this is the first time that absorption of allergenic proteins has been studied by using a biologic test. Because the HR does not display a linear relationship between allergen concentration and mediator release, we attempted to quantify the absorbed peanut proteins in the serum by means of ELISA, but this was 10 times less sensitive than HR and was only able to detect peanut antigen in a minority of the samples. A generalization of our results therefore awaits studies of other foods. [...]it is possible that patients with food allergy, in comparison with nonallergic individuals, have different absorption rates or that a local allergic inflammation might itself change the absorption rate.