AUTHOR=Dahl Åslög 

TITLE=Pollen Lipids Can Play a Role in Allergic Airway Inflammation

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Immunology

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2018

YEAR=2018

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/immunology/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2018.02816

DOI=10.3389/fimmu.2018.02816

ISSN=1664-3224

ABSTRACT=In seed plants, pollen grains carry the male gametes to female structures. They are frequent in the ambient air, and cause airway inflammation in one out of four persons in the population. This potency was traditionally attributed to soluble glycoproteins, that leak out from the grains into the moist nasal mucosa or into the conjunctiva, and that are able to bind antibodies. It is now more and more recognised that apart from proteins, also other immunomodulating compounds are present. Lipids bind to Toll-like and CD1 receptors on antigen-presenting cells in the mammal immune system, and are able to induce a Type 2 reaction in effector cells. They may also mimic lipid mediators from mammal mast cells. Pollen grains have a rich lipodome of their own. Among the lipids that have been associated with an atopic reaction are saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, glycophospholipids, sphingolipids, sterols, and oxylipids, as well as lipopolysaccharides from the microbiome on the pollen surface. Lipids can be ligands to allergenic proteins.