Ambient air pollution and inflammation-related proteins during early childhood

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Background and aim: Experimental studies show that short-term exposure to air pollution may alter cytokine concentrations. There is, however, a lack of epidemiological studies evaluating the association between long-term air pollution exposure and inflammation-related proteins in young children. Our objective was to examine whether air pollution exposure is associated with inflammation-related proteins during the first 2 years of life. Methods: In a pooled analysis of two birth cohorts from Stockholm County (n=158), plasma levels of 92 systemic inflammation-related proteins were measured by Olink Proseek Multiplex Inflammation panel at 6 months, 1 year and 2 years of age. Time-weighted average exposure to particles with an aerodynamic diameter of <10 µm (PM₁₀), <2.5 µm (PM₂.₅), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) at residential addresses from birth and onwards was estimated via validated dispersion models. Mixed effect model was applied to estimate the overall effect of preceding air pollution exposure on combined protein levels, "proteome” at respective ages, followed by protein-specific bootstrapped quantile regression analysis. Results: We identified significant association between overall proteome profile at the age of 6 months and PM₁₀ exposure during the first 6 months of life (p=0.03), particularly among girls (p interaction with sex=0.03), whereas no associations were observed with PM₂.₅ or NO₂. Subsequent protein-specific analyses revealed significant associations of PM₁₀ exposure with an increase in IFN-gamma and IL-12B in boys, and a decrease in IL-8 in girls at different percentiles of proteins levels. Several inflammation-related proteins were also significantly associated with preceding PM₂.₅ and NO₂ exposures, at ages 1 and 2 years, in a sex-specific manner. Conclusions: Ambient air pollution exposure may influence inflammation-related protein levels already during early childhood. Our results also suggest age- and sex-specific differences in the impact of air pollution on children’s inflammatory profiles.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.