Triggering of Inflammation Response by Fine Particulate Matter

Image by AJC1 via FlickrDysfunction via NADPH Oxidase and TLR4 Pathways - Chronic Fine Particulate Matter Exposure Induces Systemic Vascular (29 page pdf, Qinghua Sun, Henning Morawietz and Sanjay Rajagopalan, Nitin P. Padture, Sampath Parthasarathy, Lung Chi Chen, Susan Moffatt-Bruce, Deiuliis, Xiaohua Xu, Nisharahmed Kherada, Robert D. Brook, Kongara M. Reddy, Thomas Kampfrath, Andrei Maiseyeu, Zhekang Ying, Zubair Shah, Jeffrey A., Circulation Research, Jan. 27, 2011)

Also discussed here: Polluted Air Leads to Disease by Promoting Widespread Inflammation (Science Daily, Apr. 14, 2011)

Today’s review article discusses the way that fine particulate matter interacts with white blood cells (in mice) to cause widespread inflammation which in turn has impacts on the lungs and circulation.



Key Quotes:

“Chronic inhalation of polluted air appears to activate a protein that triggers the release of white blood cells, setting off events that lead to widespread inflammation”

“PM 2.5 air pollution has been linked with endothelial dysfunction, systemic inflammatory and oxidative stress responses and the progression of atherosclerosis”

“It is increasingly apparent that biological systems commonly use evolutionarily conserved mechanisms to sense a variety of environmental signals. Toll-like receptors (TLRs) play a central role in the recognition of a broad diversity of environmental and pathogen associated molecular patterns”

"Our main hypothesis is that particulate matter stimulates inflammation in the lung, and products of that inflammation spill over into the body's circulation, traveling to fat tissue to promote inflammation and causing vascular dysfunction,"

"We haven't identified the entire mechanism, but we have evidence now that activation of TLR4 influences this response."

"The free radicals can have a high impact on vascular function,"

"This is a sign that the monocytes are responding to inflammatory stimuli -- which in our case is particulate matter -- and then in turn they can cause more inflammation because they release inflammatory factors,"

"After exposure, there is an increase in oxidized phospholipids in the lung fluid. ..What we do know is that the increase in oxidized phospholipids in turn promotes inflammation."

” Our results provide mechanistic proof of the existence of a significant contribution of the bone marrow and potentially spleen in response to chronic PM 2.5 exposure”

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