IgE-mediated allergic responses associated to Ailanthus altissima pollen using an animal model.

BACKGROUND

Murine models have been widely used in the study of allergy as sensitized mice can produce IgE and/or IgG1in response after the injection of an antigen/adjuvant combination. Ailanthus altissima pollen (AAP) has been recently reported as an emerging aeroallergen in Iran. So far, several AAP candidate allergens by the screening of allergen-specific IgE in the sera from AAP sensitized patients in Iran.

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the present study was to detect and compare the allergens eliciting an IgE response in a mouse model, and in human, using pollen extract of A. altissima and an immunoproteomics based approach.

METHODS

The pollen proteins were extracted in phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). Thirty male BALB/c mice were randomly divided into two groups of AP extract sensitized and sham that respectively received AAP PBS extract and a PBS control by intraperitoneal injections at regular intervals. The optimized AAP protein extracts were analyzed using 2D-gel electrophoresis and were subsequently confronted to pooled sera of sensitized mice.

RESULTS

Two-D gel electrophoresis of AAP extract allowed the separation of 125 protein spots distributed in a wide range of pI and molecular masses. Two-DE immunoblotting using pooled sera of sensitized mice led to the detection of 14 IgE reactive spots with molecular masses ranging from 12 to 40-42kDa.

CONCLUSION

The results do not correlate with our previous analyses using human AAP-sensitized sera. These findings reflect some differences in the sIgE reactivity to allergenic proteins in animal models.