Comparison of Allergenicity of Mature Pollen Grains and Petals in Two Ontogenic Stages in Cytisus scoparius L.

Cytisus scoparius L. is a plant commonly grown in parks, on highway margins, and in urban green spaces due to its beauty and flowers. It belongs to the family Fabaceae. The allergenicity of its pollen grains has been demonstrated (Majd & Rezanejad,2004); however,the allergenicity of thevery fragrant petals and its severitycompared withthat of maturepollen grains are unclear. Therefore, our aim was to investigate the allergenicity of pollen grain sand extremely fragrant petal songuinea pigs. In this study, buffered mature pollen extract and buffer extracts of petals at two ontogenic stages of old and middle-aged plants were prepared at a concentration of 16% and injected intra peritoneally and subdermally into guinea pigs. After the injection of extracts into the peritoneumfor 5 weeks, at 1-week intervals, blood samples were collected from the animals, and the levels of blood sugar, eosinophils, and serum IgE were measured. Clinical tests showed that the most potent stimulator of the immune system was the pollen extract, followed by the petal extract of middle-aged plants and old petal extract. In addition, electrophoretic profiles revealed approximately six specific protein bands that ranged from 15 to 85 kDa in the soluble pollen protein fraction, four protein bands between 27 and 85 kDa in the soluble fraction of middle-aged petal proteins, and approximately three faint protein bands between 45 and 85 kDa in the soluble protein fraction of old petals.