Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Serum Inflammatory Cytokines in Children

Overview

Journal Environ Health Perspect

Date 2017 Jul 4

PMID 28669936

Citations 22

Authors

Olena Gruzieva

Simon Kebede Merid

Anna Gref

Ashwini Gajulapuri

Nathanael Lemonnier

Stephane Ballereau

Bruna Gigante

Juha Kere

Charles Auffray

Erik Melen

Goran Pershagen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution can lead to adverse health effects in children; however, underlying biological mechanisms are not fully understood.

Objectives: We evaluated the effect of air pollution exposure during different time periods on mRNA expression as well as circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines in children.

Methods: We measured a panel of 10 inflammatory markers in peripheral blood samples from 670 8-y-old children in the Barn/Child, Allergy, Milieu, Stockholm, Epidemiology (BAMSE) birth cohort. Outdoor concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO) and particulate matter (PM) with aerodynamic diameter <10 μm (PM) from road traffic were estimated for residential, daycare, and school addresses using dispersion modeling. Time-weighted average exposures during infancy and at biosampling were linked to serum cytokine levels using linear regression analysis. Furthermore, gene expression data from 16-year-olds in BAMSE (n=238) were used to evaluate links between air pollution exposure and expression of genes coding for the studied inflammatory markers.

Results: A 10 μg/m increase of NO exposure during infancy was associated with a 13.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.8; 28.1%) increase in interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels, as well as with a 27.8% (95% CI: 4.6, 56.2%) increase in IL-10 levels, the latter limited to children with asthma. However, no clear associations were observed for current exposure. Results were similar using PM, which showed a high correlation with NO. The functional analysis identified several differentially expressed genes in response to air pollution exposure during infancy, including , , and ;.

Conclusion: Our results indicate alterations in systemic inflammatory markers in 8-y-old children in relation to early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP460.

Citing Articles

Association between ambient air pollution and outpatient visits of cardiovascular diseases in Zibo, China: a time series analysis.

Wang Y, Qu S, Li T, Chen L, Yang L Front Public Health. 2025; 12():1492056.

PMID: 39845652 PMC: 11750768. DOI: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1492056.

Birth Cohort Studies of Long-Term Exposure to Ambient Air Pollution in Early Life and Development of Asthma in Children and Adolescents from Denmark.

Pedersen M, Liu S, Andersen Z, Nybo A, Brandt J, Budtz-Jorgensen E Res Rep Health Eff Inst. 2024; (219):1-63.

PMID: 39469971 PMC: 11525942.

Air pollution: a latent key driving force of dementia.

Mohammadzadeh M, Khoshakhlagh A, Grafman J BMC Public Health. 2024; 24(1):2370.

PMID: 39223534 PMC: 11367863. DOI: 10.1186/s12889-024-19918-4.

Clinical and inflammatory features of traffic-related diesel exposure in children with asthma.

Fitzpatrick A, Mohammad A, Desher K, Mutic A, Stephenson S, Dallalio G Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2024; 133(4):393-402.e4.

PMID: 39074656 PMC: 11410514. DOI: 10.1016/j.anai.2024.07.019.

Emerging epigenetic dynamics in gut-microglia brain axis: experimental and clinical implications for accelerated brain aging in schizophrenia.

Ben-Azu B, Del Re E, VanderZwaag J, Carrier M, Keshavan M, Khakpour M Front Cell Neurosci. 2023; 17:1139357.

PMID: 37256150 PMC: 10225712. DOI: 10.3389/fncel.2023.1139357.

References

Shang Y, Fan L, Feng J, Lv S, Wu M, Li B . Genotoxic and inflammatory effects of organic extracts from traffic-related particulate matter in human lung epithelial A549 cells: the role of quinones. Toxicol In Vitro. 2013; 27(2):922-31. DOI: 10.1016/j.tiv.2013.01.008. View

Behndig A, Mudway I, Brown J, Stenfors N, Helleday R, Duggan S . Airway antioxidant and inflammatory responses to diesel exhaust exposure in healthy humans. Eur Respir J. 2006; 27(2):359-65. DOI: 10.1183/09031936.06.00136904. View

Korek M, Johansson C, Svensson N, Lind T, Beelen R, Hoek G . Can dispersion modeling of air pollution be improved by land-use regression? An example from Stockholm, Sweden. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2016; 27(6):575-581. PMC: 5658676. DOI: 10.1038/jes.2016.40. View

Nazariah S, Juliana J, Abdah M . Interleukin-6 via sputum induction as biomarker of inflammation for indoor particulate matter among primary school children in Klang Valley, Malaysia. Glob J Health Sci. 2013; 5(4):93-105. PMC: 4776807. DOI: 10.5539/gjhs.v5n4p93. View

Brown M, Sarnat S, Demuth K, Brown L, Whitlock D, Brown S . Residential proximity to a major roadway is associated with features of asthma control in children. PLoS One. 2012; 7(5):e37044. PMC: 3355164. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0037044. View

Auerbach A, Hernandez M . The effect of environmental oxidative stress on airway inflammation. Curr Opin Allergy Clin Immunol. 2012; 12(2):133-9. PMC: 3319111. DOI: 10.1097/ACI.0b013e32835113d6. View

Sonnenschein-van der Voort A, de Kluizenaar Y, Jaddoe V, Gabriele C, Raat H, Moll H . Air pollution, fetal and infant tobacco smoke exposure, and wheezing in preschool children: a population-based prospective birth cohort. Environ Health. 2012; 11:91. PMC: 3533997. DOI: 10.1186/1476-069X-11-91. View

Gehring U, Wijga A, Hoek G, Bellander T, Berdel D, Bruske I . Exposure to air pollution and development of asthma and rhinoconjunctivitis throughout childhood and adolescence: a population-based birth cohort study. Lancet Respir Med. 2016; 3(12):933-42. DOI: 10.1016/S2213-2600(15)00426-9. View

Ruckerl R, Greven S, Ljungman P, Aalto P, Antoniades C, Bellander T . Air pollution and inflammation (interleukin-6, C-reactive protein, fibrinogen) in myocardial infarction survivors. Environ Health Perspect. 2007; 115(7):1072-80. PMC: 1913563. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.10021. View

10.

Shi T, Zhu M, He J, Wang M, Li Q, Zhou X . Polymorphisms of the Interleukin 6 gene contribute to cervical cancer susceptibility in Eastern Chinese women. Hum Genet. 2012; 132(3):301-12. DOI: 10.1007/s00439-012-1245-4. View

11.

Chung F . Anti-inflammatory cytokines in asthma and allergy: interleukin-10, interleukin-12, interferon-gamma. Mediators Inflamm. 2001; 10(2):51-9. PMC: 1781697. DOI: 10.1080/09629350120054518. View

12.

Zuurbier M, Hoek G, Oldenwening M, Meliefste K, Krop E, van den Hazel P . In-traffic air pollution exposure and CC16, blood coagulation, and inflammation markers in healthy adults. Environ Health Perspect. 2011; 119(10):1384-9. PMC: 3230432. DOI: 10.1289/ehp.1003151. View

13.

Kongerud J, Madden M, Hazucha M, Peden D . Nasal responses in asthmatic and nonasthmatic subjects following exposure to diesel exhaust particles. Inhal Toxicol. 2006; 18(9):589-94. DOI: 10.1080/08958370600743027. View

14.

Gruzieva O, Xu C, Breton C, Annesi-Maesano I, Anto J, Auffray C . Epigenome-Wide Meta-Analysis of Methylation in Children Related to Prenatal NO2 Air Pollution Exposure. Environ Health Perspect. 2016; 125(1):104-110. PMC: 5226705. DOI: 10.1289/EHP36. View

15.

Esposito S, Tenconi R, Lelii M, Preti V, Nazzari E, Consolo S . Possible molecular mechanisms linking air pollution and asthma in children. BMC Pulm Med. 2014; 14:31. PMC: 3941253. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2466-14-31. View

16.

Schultz E, Hallberg J, Bellander T, Bergstrom A, Bottai M, Chiesa F . Early-Life Exposure to Traffic-related Air Pollution and Lung Function in Adolescence. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2015; 193(2):171-7. DOI: 10.1164/rccm.201505-0928OC. View

17.

Larsson N, Brown J, Stenfors N, Wilson S, Mudway I, Pourazar J . Airway inflammatory responses to diesel exhaust in allergic rhinitics. Inhal Toxicol. 2013; 25(3):160-7. DOI: 10.3109/08958378.2013.765932. View

18.

Perneger T . What's wrong with Bonferroni adjustments. BMJ. 1998; 316(7139):1236-8. PMC: 1112991. DOI: 10.1136/bmj.316.7139.1236. View

19.

Moffatt M, Gut I, Demenais F, Strachan D, Bouzigon E, Heath S . A large-scale, consortium-based genomewide association study of asthma. N Engl J Med. 2010; 363(13):1211-1221. PMC: 4260321. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa0906312. View

20.

Panasevich S, Leander K, Rosenlund M, Ljungman P, Bellander T, de Faire U . Associations of long- and short-term air pollution exposure with markers of inflammation and coagulation in a population sample. Occup Environ Med. 2009; 66(11):747-53. DOI: 10.1136/oem.2008.043471. View