Spores of allergenic Pleosporales in indoor and outdoor environments of Barcelona, Spain
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1
Escuela de Microbiología, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Formación Académica, Colombia
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2
Universidad del Pais Vasco, Departmento de Inmunología, Microbiología y Parasitología, Spain
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3
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Unitat de Botànica, Departament Biologia Animal, Biologia Vegetal i Ecologia, Spain
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4
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals (ICTA), Spain
Pleosporales are fungi widely distributed in the environment. They can behave as saprophytic or pathogens for plants and animals. Alternaria is the main allergenic fungus of this order with aerial dispersion of the conidia, is the most recognized taxon within this order and its alt a 1 allergen is highly conserved in the phylogenetically related fungi.
With the aim of analyzing the aerobiological behavior of spores of Alternaria and other Pleosporales in Barcelona, Spain, we realized: 1) the retrospective study of a 19 years-dataset provided by the Xarxa Aerobiológica of Catalunya (1995-2013) of the diversity and daily concentrations in three areas corresponding to rural (Lleida), semiurban (Manresa) and urban (Barcelona) environments; 2) the description of the diversity and hourly behavior in the city of Barcelona during the year 2010, and 3) the analysis of the diversity and concentrations in indoors and outdoors of the environments of 43 homes of Barcelona by the use of methods to determine total spores (Hirst sampler) and viable fungi (Microflow) as well as the measurement of the Alt a 1 allergen concentrations in indoor dust samples.
In the retrospective analysis it was demonstrated that Alternaria was the most common taxon in the air, followed by Leptosphaeria, Epicoccum and Pleospora. The identified Pleosporales showed a seasonal behavior, with the higher levels during the warmest seasons (two peaks, at the end of spring and at the beginning of autumn) and with a significant decrease in the concentrations during the cold months. A significant and positive correlation was found between mitosporic Pleosporales and temperature; meanwhile a negative correlation was found with relative humidity and the rain. The effect of these meteorological parameters was opposite for the meiosporic Pleosporales.
The urbanization level had a negative effect in spore levels since counts three and two times higher were observed in rural area compared with urban and semiurban area respectively. During 2010, 32 genus of Pleosporales were identified. They showed a seasonal behavior and correlations with meteorological parameters similar to those observed in that study of 19 years. Regarding the hourly pattern, the spores of mitosporic Pleosporales presented two liberation peaks, at about 10 and 17 hours, while the meiosporic Pleosporales also showed two peaks, in the dawn (4 h) and in the night (20 h).
Regarding to the analysis of the levels and diversity of pleosporales in both, indoors and outdoors environments, the method for total spores allowed us to identify 33 different taxa; meanwhile, employing the method for viable fungi we identify only 11 different taxa. In addition, a higher sensibility was found employing the total spores method, with counts three time higher to those of the viable method (8663 spores versus 2905 UFC in outdoor and 2825 spores versus 788 UFC in indoor). With the employ of both methods, Alternaria was the taxon recovered with major frequency. Meiosporic Pleosporales could not be recovered by the method for viable fungi. Mitosporic taxa showed a positive correlation with the outdoor temperature; nevertheless, most of the taxa in indoor environment did not show a significant relation with the meteorological parameters.
Regarding to Alt a 1 levels in the house dust, 8 homes presented detectable levels of this allergen (1,6 to 6,6 ng/ml, sd 1,6). However, no correlation was found these Alt a 1 levels with total Pleosporales or Alternaria conidia.
As a conclusion, Pleosporales spores are common components of the airborne microflora, by which, the exposure risk is latent and it can involve allergy symptoms exacerbation in hypersensitive patients. The knowledge of the aerobiological dynamics of these taxa allow establishing prevention measures to diminish the complications associated with the exposure to this spores.
Acknowledgements
COST ES0603 EUPOL; Laboratorios LETI S.A.; Servei Meteorològic de Catalunya; Diputació de Barcelona; SCAIC, SEAIC, Stallergenes Iberica, J. Uriach y Cia, European Commission for “ENV4-CT98-0755”; Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology I+D+I for “AMB97-0457-CO7-021”, REN2001-10659-CO3-01”, “CGL2004-21166-E, “CGL2005-07543/CLI”, “CGL2009-11205”, CGL2012-39523-C02-01 and CONSOLIDER CSD 2007_00067 GRACCIE; Catalan Government AGAUR for “2002SGR00059”, “2005SGR00519”, “2009SGR1102”and 2014SGR1274; and Colciencias (Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación de Colombia). Special acknowledgments to allergic patients and non-allergic people participating in this study and to the allergologists from the Hospital Clínic, Hospital Vall d’Hebron and Clínica Teknon that made possible the contact with the patients and provided the needed clinical information.
Keywords:
aerobiology,
Pleosporales spores,
Meteorological parameters,
Allergy disease,
Indoor air quality,
Outdoor air quality
Conference:
IMMUNOCOLOMBIA2015 - 11th Congress of the Latin American Association of Immunology - 10o. Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Alergia, Asma e Inmunología, Medellin, Colombia, 13 Oct - 16 Oct, 2015.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Allergy
Citation:
Rúa-Giraldo
AL,
Gutierrez-Rodríguez
A,
Martínez Quesada
J,
Postigo
I and
Belmonte Soler
J
(2015). Spores of allergenic Pleosporales in indoor and outdoor environments of Barcelona, Spain.
Front. Immunol.
Conference Abstract:
IMMUNOCOLOMBIA2015 - 11th Congress of the Latin American Association of Immunology - 10o. Congreso de la Asociación Colombiana de Alergia, Asma e Inmunología.
doi: 10.3389/conf.fimmu.2015.05.00258
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Received:
01 Jun 2015;
Published Online:
14 Sep 2015.
*
Correspondence:
PhD. Alvaro L Rúa-Giraldo, Escuela de Microbiología, Universidad de Antioquia, Departamento de Formación Académica, Medellín, Colombia, alvaro.rua@udea.edu.co