Aerobiology is a scientific discipline that studies the origins, the dispersion into the atmosphere, the transport and deposition of anemophilic particles . From a biological point of view, those that take on greater importance are in particular pollen grains, fungal spores, actinomycetes, protozoa, products derived from arthropods, viruses, bacteria, algae.
The dispersion of this material into the atmosphere determines the creation of a so-called ” biological aerosol “”which can be an etiological cause of disease. For this reason, aerobiology has long been used in the allergy field, as a useful assessment tool for respiratory allergies.
Aerobiological monitoring of airborne allergenic pollen is particularly useful in the field of pollinosis. The techniques for the capture and counting of airborne particles are different and are based on the principles of gravitational deposition (Durham apparatus), inertial impact (Rotorod apparatus), impact by depression (Hirst apparatus). The latter system is the most used system currently in Italy. There are two types of sampler on the market: the Burkard Spore Trap and the VPPS 2000 Lanzoni. Another device based on the same principle is the portable Fartrap sampler from the Coppa company, which can be used for customized sampling.
The applications in allergology of aerobiological sampling (based not only on the counts of pollen particles but also of fungal spores) are different and concern the diagnosis, prevention, clinical control and therapy of allergic patients. We must not overlook the applications related to scientific research.
In the diagnosis of allergic forms, pollen monitoring will serve to correlate the pollen presences with the patient’s medical history, and also to correlate them to the answers of the diagnostic tests.
For the prevention of diseases as it is possible to derive flowering forecast criteria from pollen monitoring. These will be differentiated by geographical areas and can be defined, by areas and by different types of pollen, only after a certain number of years of sampling and with appropriate correlation with the weather data.
For clinical control , knowledge of the concentrations of certain pollens can help to evaluate the variations of different clinical and laboratory parameters and to evaluate the variations in the symptoms of patients.
In the field of therapy , pollen monitoring will be a useful guide to an adequate pharmacological treatment and a modulation of specific immunotherapy dosages.
In research , pollen monitoring has proved fundamental in the course of planned studies on pharmacological or immunotherapy therapies, in pollinosis and respiratory allergies caused by fungus spores.
Aerobiology has been gaining great importance in recent decades. In a broad sense, Aerobiology means study of living organisms in the air; In a more restricted sense, this term is applied to studies of the atmospheric content of pollen grains and fungal spores, their diversity and the concentrations with which they occur at different times of the year.
The analyzes and the results obtained have, among other uses, the detection of pollens that cause allergies among the population, the forecast of harvests and the detection of the early or late flowering of plants and their relationship with climate change .
Pollen and spore production is part of the reproductive mechanism of plants. The production volume of pollen grains is calculated by anther, flower, tree or piece of land. An Olea anther, for example, contains more than 29,000 pollen grains; one Quercus tree, up to 500,000 million (Tormo & al. 1996). The age, physiological state of the plant, microclimate and the climate of the previous year, including episodes such as frost and drought, are factors that influence pollen production. Once pollen has been produced by the emitting source,
During pollination seasons, large amounts of pollen are released into the atmosphere, covering distances of up to 100 km (Mandrioli & al., 1984; Yäger & al., 1996; Cabezudo & al. 1997).
Pollen grains are the particles that mainly cause allergic processes of biological origin among the population, and allergy is one of the booming health problems, almost 20% of the human population (Devesa, 1995). The pollen allergens that trigger asthma correspond to pollens from plants that pollinate through the air (anemophilic pollination). Each species has its own period of flowering and pollination, which depends on the weather. The abundance of allergenic pollens in a locality depends on the surrounding vegetation, urban flora and the climatic course of each year.
