ABSTRACT
Serum IgE levels correlate well with allergic airway disease, and genetic analyses of families have shown bronchial hyper-responsiveness to be linked to serum IgE levels. IgE is set apart from other immunoglobulins by its very low plasma levels, and even in severe disease, where IgE levels are in excess of 100 times normal, values rarely approach baseline levels of other immunoglobulins.Thus, the levels of IgE are tightly controlled to prevent the potentially lethal effects of IgE-dependent inflammation.
