title: New insights into an old story: pollen ROS also play a role in hay fever.
abstract: Reactive oxygen species (ROS) can exhibit negative and benign traits. In plants, ROS levels increase markedly during periods of environmental stress, and defense against pathogen attack. ROS form naturally as a by-product of normal oxygen metabolism, and evenly play an essential role in cell growth. The short ROS lifespan makes them ideal molecules to act in cell signaling, a role they share in both plants and animals. A particular plant organism, the pollen grain, may closely interact with human mucosa and an allergic inflammatory response often results. Pollen grain ROS represent a first, crucial signal which primes and magnifies a cascade of events in the allergic response.
authors: Dipartimento di Biologia Evoluzionistica Sperimentale, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy. anna.speranza@unibo.it
authors: Anna
authors: A
authors: Speranza
authors: Valeria
authors: V
authors: Scoccianti
mesh_terms: D000397:Air Pollution; D000485:Allergens / Q000276:immunology; D049671:History, 18th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D011058:Pollen / Q000276:immunology*; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000276:immunology*; D006255:Rhinitis, Allergic, Seasonal / Q000266:history / Q000276:immunology*
chemical_list: D000485:Allergens; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species