BACKGROUND AND AIMS Specific hyper-responsiveness towards an allergen and non-specific airway hyperreactivity both impair quality of life in patients with respiratory allergic diseases. We aimed to investigate cellular responses following specific and non-specific airway challenges locally and systemically in i) sensitized BALB/c mice challenged with grass pollen allergen Phl p 5, and in ii) gr...

a lack of adequate annual chilling in temperate zone fruit growing trees, especially pistachio is a main problem observed in many areas with partly warm winters. usually this phenomenon results in disorders in vegetative and reproductive structures, decrease in production of pollen, falling of flower buds and decrease in or loss of fruit set. presently the use of some substitute chemical compou...

Although the management of malnutrition is a priority in older people, this population shows a resistance to refeeding. Fresh bee pollen contains nutritional substances of interest for malnourished people. The aim was to evaluate the effect of fresh bee pollen supplementation on refeeding efficiency in old malnourished rats. Male 22-month-old Wistar rats were undernourished by reducing food int...

More than 10% of the population in Europe and North America suffer from IgE-associated allergy to grass pollen. In this article, we describe the development of a vaccine for grass pollen allergen-specific immunotherapy based on two recombinant hypoallergenic mosaic molecules, designated P and Q, which were constructed out of elements derived from the four major timothy grass pollen allergens: P...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Although many methods exist for quantifying the number of pollen grains in a sample, there are few standard methods that are user-friendly, inexpensive and reliable. The present contribution describes a new method of counting pollen using readily available, free image processing and analysis software. METHODS Pollen was collected from anthers of two species, Carduus acanth...

Chemical fruit thinning has become a popular practice in modern fruit orchards for achieving high quality fruits, reducing costs of hand thinning and promoting return bloom. However, most of the suggested chemical thinners are often concerned for their detrimental effects and environmental problems. 5-Aminolevulic acid (ALA) is a natural, nontoxic, biodegradable, and environment-friendly plant ...

Pooideae species. While for several species the most important allergens (group 1 and group 5) have been identified, other allergens have either not been identified or sequence data are still missing. We have used mass spectrometry (MS) together with genetic and immunological methods to identify allergens in various grass pollen extracts. Methods: Pollen extracts of 6 different grass species (P...

Pooideae species. While for several species the most important allergens (group 1 and group 5) have been identified, other allergens have either not been identified or sequence data are still missing. We have used mass spectrometry (MS) together with genetic and immunological methods to identify allergens in various grass pollen extracts. Methods: Pollen extracts of 6 different grass species (P...

Most Japanese plum-type cultivars are self-incompatible and therefore cross pollination is necessary to ensure fruit set. Moreover, pollen can directly affect fruit development process and quality.  This study was carried out to investigate the effect of 6 pollen sources (‘Goje Sabz’, ‘Simka’, ‘Shablon’, ‘Methley’, ‘Myrobalan’ and ‘Black Star’) on  fruit quantitative and qualitative characteris...

BACKGROUND Air pollution is frequently proposed as a potential cause of the increased incidence of allergy in industrialised countries. Our objective was to investigate the impact of the major gaseous air pollutants on grass pollen allergens. METHODS Timothy grass pollen was exposed to ozone (O(3)), nitrogen dioxide (NO(2)) and sulphur dioxide (SO(2)) alone or in combination. Allergen content...