The impact of ambient air pollution on the human blood metabolome

J.J. Vlaanderen, N.A. Janssen, G. Hoek, P Keski-Rahkonen, D K Barupal, F.R. Cassee, I. Gosens, M. Strak, M. Steenhof, Q. Lan, B. Brunekreef, Augustin Scalbert, R.C.H. Vermeulen

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    BACKGROUND: Biological perturbations caused by air pollution might be reflected in the compounds present in blood originating from air pollutants and endogenous metabolites influenced by air pollution (defined here as part of the blood metabolome). We aimed to assess the perturbation of the blood metabolome in response to short term exposure to air pollution.
    METHODS: We exposed 31 healthy volunteers to ambient air pollution for 5h. We measured exposure to particulate matter, particle number concentrations, absorbance, elemental/organic carbon, trace metals, secondary inorganic components, endotoxin content, gaseous pollutants, and particulate matter oxidative potential. We collected blood from the participants 2h before and 2 and 18h after exposure. We employed untargeted metabolite profiling to monitor 3873 metabolic features in 493 blood samples from these volunteers. We assessed lung function using spirometry and six acute phase proteins in peripheral blood. We assessed the association of the metabolic features with the measured air pollutants and with health markers that we previously observed to be associated with air pollution in this study.
    RESULTS: We observed 89 robust associations between air pollutants and metabolic features two hours after exposure and 118 robust associations 18h after exposure. Some of the metabolic features that were associated with air pollutants were also associated with acute health effects, especially changes in forced expiratory volume in 1s. We successfully identified tyrosine, guanosine, and hypoxanthine among the associated features. Bioinformatics approach Mummichog predicted enriched pathway activity in eight pathways, among which tyrosine metabolism.
    CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates for the first time the application of untargeted metabolite profiling to assess the impact of air pollution on the blood metabolome.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)341-348
    Number of pages8
    JournalEnvironmental Research
    Volume156
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Jul 2017

    Keywords

    • Metabolite profiling
    • Air pollution
    • Blood
    • Cardio-respiratory health effects
    • Particulate matter components

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