1Department of Cellular Biology and Biochemistry, School of Pharmacy and Bio-Medicine, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
2Department of Physiology and Molecular Biology, Ach Medical University, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
3 School of Medicine, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
Background: In Mongolia, out of 203 species of plants which cause allergies, 43 species of plants identified as allergens. In the family Amaranthaceae (Chenopodiaceae), several annual species of the genus Salsola are the most notorious tumbleweeds.Salsola tragus is the so-called "Russian thistle". Over the last few years in Mongolia, spread of allergic diseases among adults and children has been increasing noticeably. A plant, Russian thistle pollen allergy is increasing. Sensitization to Russian thistle is not found that many in the country. So this led to carry out this study.
Мethods: The study was made by the Department of Cell biology and biochemistry, School of Pharmacy and Bio-Medicine, MNUMS and Effect allergy and asthma clinic. We were used the method of skin prick test with allergen of Russian thistle (Allergy Laboratories Inc, USA). Wheal sizes were measured as the mean of the 3 extreme diameters 15 to 20 minutes after the prick. Reactions were considered positive if the wheal was larger than the negative control by 3 mm or more. On the basis of this analysis, the sensitization rates of the Russian thistle.
Result: We were tested specific activity of Russian thistle with over 40 kinds of allergens to 1031 cases with respiratory allergic anamnesis in allergy. 104 cases (10.08%) out of all cases with age range 3-74 years old and 42.3% were women and 57.7% were men.Severity of allergen sensitization is done by comparing average diameters of wheals from positive results. The result is divided into 4 groups as follows: 3 mm weak, 3.5 - 4 mm2 middle, 4.5 - 5.5 mm2 sever, 6mm2 and above very sever. The mean diameter of wheals that had sensitized to Russian thistle was 5.31 ± 0.48 mm2 and 0.1% histamine hydrochloride positive control was 4.89 ± 1.32 mm2. After the skin prick tests, when calculating people sex along with average diameters of wheals from allergen sensitization to Russian thistle’s pollen, people between age of 3-18 had sever sensitization, 19-39 sensitization was very sever.
Conclusions. The sensitization to Russian thistle was mild (10.08%) among adult subjects with seasonal allergic rhinitis in Mongolia.