Inflammatory and oxidative stress responses of healthy adults to changes in personal air pollutant exposure

• Published in: Environmental pollution (1987) 2020-08, Vol.263 (Pt A), p.114503-114503, Article 114503
• Main Authors: Hu, Xinyan, He, Linchen, Zhang, Junfeng, Qiu, Xinghua, Zhang, Yinping, Mo, Jinhan, Day, Drew B., Xiang, Jianbang, Gong, Jicheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air pollutant exposure; Inflammation; O3 exposure; Oxidative stress; Temporal-dependent response
• ISSN: 0269-7491; 1873-6424
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2020.114503

Exposure to air pollutants has been associated with respiratory and cardiovascular mortality, but the underlying molecular mechanisms remain inadequately understood. We aimed to examine molecular-level inflammatory and oxidative stress responses to personal air pollutant exposure. Fifty-three healthy adults aged 22–52 were measured three times for their blood inflammatory cytokines and urinary malondialdehyde (MDA, an oxidative stress biomarker) within 2 consecutive months. Pollutant concentrations monitored indoors and outdoors were combined with the time-activity data to calculate personal O3, PM2.5, NO2, and SO2 exposures averaged over 12 h, 24 h, 1 week, and 2 weeks, respectively, prior to biospecimen collection. Inflammatory cytokines and MDA were associated with pollutant exposures using linear mixed-effects models controlling for various covariates. After adjusting for a co-pollutant, we found that concentrations of proinflammatory cytokines were significantly and negatively associated with 12-h O3 exposures and significantly but positively associated with 2-week O3 exposures. We also found significant and positive associations of proinflammatory cytokines with 12-h and 24-h NO2 exposures, respectively. However, we did not find clear associations of PM2.5 and SO2 exposure with proinflammatory cytokines and with MDA. The removal of an O3-generating electrostatic precipitator in the mechanical ventilation systems of the offices and residences of the subjects was associated with significant decreases in IL-1β, IL-2, IL-6, IL-8, IL-17A, and TNF-α. These findings suggest that exposure to O3 for different time durations may affect systemic inflammatory responses in different ways. [Display omitted] •Air pollutants are associated with inflammation in a time-dependent pattern.•Associations of short-term O3 with inflammatory cytokines were confounded by NO2.•Sustained O3 exposure may upregulate the immune system to pro-inflammatory status.•Traffic related pollutants may induce a short-term response of inflammation.