Can Pollen penetrate the skin?
Allergy Causes
During the pollen season we are told time and again that pollen is “aggressive” and the cause of many allergies. Body-network.com will not be delivering this message but instead will enlighten you as to the real causes of your allergies.
Tight junctions are very small
The spaces between human cells, the tight junctions, are very small and are measured in nanometers. If we expand a tight junction to the size of a mouse hole, then pollen, when enlarged by the same factor, would be equivalent to the size of a tennis court. Clearly, pollen cannot pass through the skin as it would have destroy a huge area of cells, which would most certainly bleed.
The pollen enzyme is also very small
If pollen comes into contact with moist soil, or damp respiratory mucous membranes, it is broken down into smaller constituents. If a person is allergic to pollen they will have open tight junctions so the pollen enzyme, in our size comparison about the size of a tennis ball, can now slip through the mouse hole. In a person with healthy mucosa the tight junctions are closed so the pollen components remain on the outside of the body
To summarise the size comparisons: pollen is about 1000 times larger than tight junctions so cannot penetrate the body; the pollen enzyme is slightly smaller than the tight junctions and can therefore slip through opened or destroyed tight junctions and cause a defensive reaction inside the body.
