| Olive pollen (Olea europaea), a tree belonging to the Oleaceae family, has traditionally been described as one of the main species being responsible for respiratory allergy problems in the Mediterranean area, because of its farming and its increasing use as an ornamental tree. According to Alergologica 2005, Murcia is the Spanish region where the higher prevalence of patients suffering allergic rinithis has been recorded, setting olive pollen in the second place of importance.Subsequently, it has been possible to demonstrate that, in some species, proteins are the molecules responsible for the fact that atopic human beings suffer from typical pollenosis conditions. The pollen grain is the primary transporter of this kind of molecules, but not the only one. Moreover, since the last decades, it has been highlighted the possibility that these molecules can travel in the air carried by other smaller particles different from the pollen grain. The abovementioned plus the lack of correlation between the pollen counts and the patient symptoms, indicated by some researchers, has driven to the need of using the air allergenic load as a complement to the usual aerobiological counts.The most important objectives in this study have been focused in: depicting the aerobiological behaviour of Olea in our atmosphere, defining its Main Pollen Season (MPS) and the existence of other pollens with allergenic importance in this period, which could be the cause of cross reactions, and detecting and quantifying its main allergen, Ole e 1, comparing its results to the classical aerobiological counts.A brief pollenosis study and a review of immunological techniques is given. Afterwards, materials used and methods followed in order to obtain the given results are detailed. In this study, two low volume aerobiological traps have been used. For classical aerobiological characterization, a Hirst active impact trap has been used, whereas a Burkard ciclone trap has been utilized for identification and quantification of Ole e 1. The samples for Olea counts have been done following the directions of "Red Espanola de Aerobiologia" and Ole e 1 has been quantified by means of immunological techniques after the sample extractions.The aerobiological study of the Olea pollen type in Cartagena defines its MPS in the spring season, lasting between 60 and 106 days. Olea pollen rise to 13,35% of the annual total count, being 25,46% in its MPS and, if we add the rest of the taxons that share its MPS, 50% of total annual count is reached. Palmae, Plantago, Poaceae, Quercus, Rumex and Zygophyllum completely share Olea's MPS. Chenopodiaceae-Amaranthaceae and Urticaceae are coincident with Olea through its MPS, but the former has a more important peak by the end of the summer/beginning of the autumn in Cartagena while the latter flourishes the whole year in our zone, although higher counts are given in spring. The threshold levels for Olea have been defined in Cartagena, taking the aerobiological data into account, as well as the published prevalence data of sensibilization to this type in our zone.Sampling and quantification methodology for Olea allergens, Ole e 1 and Ole e 2, has been started. Ole e 2 aeroallergen is under the detection limits of the method nearly the whole days of the Olea's flowering, while Ole e 1 can be quantified in the whole samples through the Olea's flowering. Through the period that Olea is in the air, it has been recorded Ole e 1 quantifications which give us a similar information to that obtained from classical counts, and because of that we consider that the quantification of allergenic load carried by atmospheric aerosol can be a good approximation from aerobiology to the knowledge of its reactivity and response, being data of interest in epidemiology. Likewise, standardized concentrations of Ole e 1 have been found which can be equal, lower or higher than standardized concentrations of Olea pollen, although we cannot precise whether this behaviour is because of the weather (rainfall), or because of intrinsic factors of the pollen grain or other environmental factors that could have an influence in this kind of behaviour. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)... |
