Abstract
Airborne pollen grains of Borassus flabellifer were recorded at Madhyamgram, during February to June 1995–1996 commensurate with the plants flowering season. The following year (1996–1997), the exposed Burkard tape segments with the optimal and minimal daily concentrations were divided into two longitudinal equal halves. For each segment, after immunoblotting, one half was incubated with human sera having high IgE titer against Borassus, and the other half with anti-Borassus rabbit sera for the detection of allergen and antigen respectively. Antigen detection was performed by general immunoblotting method, whereas the allergens were detected by chemiluminescence. The occurrence of the pollen grains in air was compared and correlated with that of the allergen and antigen. The number of allergen and antigen spots were always found to be higher than airborne pollen with great size variation due to the presence of exine free protein particles originating from the pollen grains. The number of allergen spots was always lower than the antigen spots. The occurrence of pollen grains and antigen spots showed stronger positive correlation compared with allergen spots. The peak hours for the occurrence of pollen grains, allergens and antigens were recorded. It is evident from this study that the application of direct aeroallergen monitoring method will be highly useful in allergological research.
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Chakraborty, P., Gupta, S., Gupta-Bhattacharya, S. et al. Airborne pollen of Borassus flabellifer: Quantification of allergen and antigen. Aerobiologia 15, 49–55 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007555801812
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007555801812