Title: Mountain cedar allergens found in nonpollen tree parts.
Abstract: Mountain cedar (Juniperus ashei) pollen is the principal aeroallergen in south central Texas from late December through February. The major mountain cedar allergen is a 40-kD glycoprotein, gp40.To identify allergens in mountain cedar wood, leaves, and berries and to detect mountain cedar allergen in smoke from burning male or female trees.SDS-PAGE plus mountain cedar human sIgE and monoclonal antibody immunoblots identified mountain cedar allergens within pollen and nonpollen tree part extracts.IgE immunoblots identified a single wood allergen at 36 kD and three berry allergens at 36, 26-27, and 21 kD, in addition to known pollen allergens. Mountain cedar monoclonal antibody bound an allergen epitope present not only on 40, 33, and 28-kD pollen allergens, but also on 36 and 32-kD wood allergens, and the 26-27-kD berry allergen. Immunoblot studies detected no mountain cedar allergen in leaves and no allergen in smoke from burning male and female trees. Allergens constituted a much smaller percentage of extractable protein in wood and berries than in pollen.Mountain cedar berry allergen content is too small to give credence to the ingestion of berries as a folk medicine treatment of mountain cedar pollinosis. In addition, while smoke from burning mountain cedar trees may be irritating, it contains no allergens that could cause allergic rhinoconjunctivitis.
Publication Year: 1995
Publication Date: 1995-09-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['pubmed']
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Cited By Count: 15
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