Quality of timothy pollen (Phleum pratense) from different pollen seasons and different suppliers

We investigated seven batches of timothy (Phleum pratense) pollen from four different pollen seasons and three different manufacturers in the USA and Europe by several biochemical and immunochemical methods. By measuring the contents of hexoses, proteins and the total allergenic activity using RAST inhibition we could not find any significant differences in quality between pollen of different seasons, different geographical origin and different manufacturers. There were only slight differences in the staining of some protein bands and in peak height of some antigens in isoelectric focusing (IEF), SDS-PAGE and crossed immunoelectrophoresis. These differences in IEF and SDS-PAGE patterns seem to be specific for the pollen samples from the USA and Europe, respectively. We also observed minor differences in IEF immunoprint patterns, mainly for some basic proteins. The allergen patterns in crossed radioimmunoelectrophoresis were very similar, with only minor differences in concentration of the basic allergens. It appears that timothy pollen from different years can be produced in different geographical areas by different manufacturers with fairly constant allergenic activity.