Biomedical Research

Objective: To investigate the profiles of inhaled allergens of Allergic Rhinitis (AR) patients and to study its correlation with local airborne pollen distribution under the environment of grassland in northern China.

Method: 353 AR patients were recruited in this study. 131 were male and 221 were female. All subjects received Skin Prick Test (SPT) for 16 allergens. Meanwhile, Durham sampler was applied to acquire the pollen distribution data from local site in 2015.

Result: 317 of 353 patients (89.8%) were positive to at least one allergen. The most common allergens were: Artemisia (75.0%), Humulus (61.9%), Chenopodium (58.5%), Ragweed (56.3%), Ulmus (47.2%). Artemisia tended to be the severest allergens tested with a rate of severe sensitization of 59.1%. The positive rate of grass/weed pollen was significant higher than tree pollen (83.3% vs. 62.9%, P<0.001). The allergic sensitization rate decreased along with age increasing (P=0.005). 9.4% of AR patients was mono-sensitized, 3.97% was double-sensitized, 7.7% was triple-sensitized while 68.8% was polysensitized (χ²=584.80, P<0.001). The peak pollen season was July to August in Xilingol grassland. The pollen monitoring showed the main airborne pollen in local region were Artemisia and Chenopodiaceae, with a portion of 54.2% and 30.7% of the total pollen grains in 2015, respectively.

Conclusion: Artemisia was the predominant allergens for AR patients in grassland region both in allergic sensitization and air distribution indicating environmental impact on AR. Grass/weed pollen had a higher sensitization rate than tree pollen and poly-sensitization was the main sensitization type evoked the challenge of precise immunotherapy for those AR patients.

Author(s): Xiaoyan Wang, Zongmei Tian, Huiyu Ning, Biao Zhang, Bula Hanban, Shaomin Chu, Huan He, Haiyun Shi, Xueyan Wang
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