Aeroallergen Immunoblotting with Human IgE Antibody

Abstract

A new method is presented for the identification of the causative pollen of pollinosis patients. The airborne sample collected with a Burkard sampler was cut into two equal halves lengthwise. One was treated with the pollinosis patient's IgE using an indirect immunoenzymatic technique applied avidin-biotin system. The other half of the sampling tape was stained with basic fuchsin solution and the major pollen types were counted morphologically. The spot obtained and individual pollen counts were compared consecutively, and the causative pollen for the patient was estimated. Furthermore, verification was performed using the reference pollen of the estimated causative pollen. The method does not require any diagnostic extracts and needs only a small number of intact pollen grains. It is suitable for the identification of the causative pollen in rare pollinosis cases and the pollen for which a diagnostic extract is not commercially available.