Is the surface layer from hazelnut pollen, which is precipitated by Cuprolinic blue, an effective antigen in hay-fever patients?

Abstract

In electron micrographs it could be shown that hazelnut (Corylus avellana) pollen grains are covered on their surface by a diffusible 10 nm thick lamellar layer. On pollen surface as well as in pollen extract this layer could be precipitated and stained by the polycationic dye Cuprolinic blue. By subsequent application of both immunogold labeling with serum from a hay-fever patient allergic to tree pollen grains and histochemical detection with Cuprolinic blue this pollen surface layer proved to be an effective antigen.

Ultrastructural morphology and allergen detection in birch pollen after aqueous, anhydrous‐liquid, and vapor fixation techniques

“…Soluble proteins are displaced and eventually lost (Hallam, 1976). Therefore, alternative fixation strategies have been invented: 1) non-aqueous fixation in anhydrous fluids such as dimethylsulfoxide or glycerol (Hallam, 1976); 2) vapor fixation using fixatives with a sufficiently high vapor pressure such as osmium tetroxide (Hallam, 1976;Heslop-Harrison, 1979), p-formaldehyde (Eranko, 1964(Eranko, , 1967Frederik et al, 1984;Grote, 1991;Hayat and Giaquinta, 1970; Pearse and Polak, 1975;Pekki and Tuohimaa, 1989), benzoquinone (Pearse and Polak, 1974;Pekki and Tuohimaa, 1989), and glutaraldehyde (Staff et al, 1990); 3) aqueous fixation in the presence of precipitating compounds such as the detergent cetylpyridinium chloride (Grote et al, 1983; Grote, 1989) or the phthalocyanine dye cuprolinic blue (Grote, 1989, Volker et al, 1986; and 4) cryotechniques such as freeze-drying (Vithanage et al, 1980(Vithanage et al, , 1982 or freeze-substitution (Howlett et al, 1973;Martinez and Wick, 1991).…”