Bio-aerosols as exposure agents in indoor environments in relation to asthma and allergy

indoor exposures, such as VOCs, phthalates, tobacco smoke and biological agents.This paper focuses solely on the biological exposures. Exposures to allergens,microbial agents and other biological particles are risk factors to these health effects,but the exact causal connections or the mechanisms underlying the symptoms are stillnot well understood. Among the open questions are e.g. the importance of geneticenvironmentalinteractions in the development of allergy, pathophysiologicalmechanisms of the development of asthma and the role of various exposing agents ascausal or adjuvant factors of these diseases.In general, any foreign protein may be a potentially sensitizing agent but not all agentsare equally important as indoor exposures. Agents that have major importance asindoor allergens are listed below. In addition, many other biological molecules, suchas lipopolysaccharide (endotoxin) have immunological potential, although they do notsensitize humans via IgE-mediated allergic pathway. The different types of keyexposure agents of the indoor environment that may have a role in development ofallergy and asthma are listed in the following.Microbial agents of indoor environments:?? Endotoxin of Gram negative bacteria?? 1,3-beta-glucan of fungi?? Fungal spores and fragments?? Bacterial cells, spores and fragments?? Microbial metabolites, e.g. fungal and bacterial toxins and MVOCAllergens of the indoor environments:?? House dust mites?? Storage mites?? Cockroaches, rodents, other pests?? Pets: dog, cat, rabbit, mouse, rat?? Fungal allergens