Spring brings breezes, wheezes, and pollen oxidases
J. Clin. Invest. Darren R. Ritsick, et al. 115:2067 doi:10.1172/JCI26023 [Go to this article.]

Figure 1
A binary model for pollen-induced inflammation. Pollen triggers an adaptive immune response through the process of antigen presentation by professional antigen-presenting cells. This response also triggers recruitment of granulocytes including eosinophils and results in inflammation, which is due in part to the production of ROS by the eosinophil NADPH oxidase. In this issue of the JCI, Boldogh and colleagues (9) demonstrate that pollen has its own NADPH oxidase activity (referred to here as pollen oxidase, POX) that induces local oxidative stress and IL-8 secretion and triggers early recruitment of eosinophils even in the total absence of an adaptive immune response.