The effects of ambient particulate matter on human adipose tissue

ABSTRACT

The effects of particulate matter (PM) air pollution on adipose tissue have mainly been studied in animal models. The aim of this study was to examine the potential associations between PM exposure and 25 cellular markers in human omental (OM) and subcutaneous (SC) adipose tissue. The PM exposure assessments for both PM_2.5 (PM <2.5 μm in diameter) and PM₁₀ (<10 μm) were based upon a novel hybrid satellite-based spatio-temporally resolved model. We calculated the PM exposure above the background threshold for 1 week (acute phase), 3 and 6 months (intermediate phase), and 1 year (chronic phase) prior to tissue harvesting and tested the associations with adipose cell metabolic effects using multiple linear regressions and heat maps strategy. Chemokine levels were found to increase after acute and intermediate exposure duration to PM₁₀. The levels of stress signaling biomarkers in the SC and OM tissues rose after acute exposure to PM₁₀ and PM_2.5. Macrophage and leucocyte counts were associated with severity of PM exposure in all three duration groups. Adipocyte diameter decreased in all exposure periods. Our results provide evidence for significant contribution of air pollutants exposure to adipose tissue inflammation as well as for pathophysiological mechanisms of metabolic dysregulation that may be involved in the observed responses.

KEYWORDS:

• Air pollution
• adipose tissue
• cardiovascular
• inflammation
• atherosclerosis

Acknowledgments

We express our sincere gratitude to Prof. Assaf Rudich from the department of Clinical Biochemistry and Pharmacology and the National Institute of Biotechnology in the Negev (NIBN), BGU, Beer-Sheva, Israel for sharing his insightful comments and suggestions throughout the duration of this study. This work was supported by BGU “South” scholarship and the Israeli Scholarship Education Foundation (ISEF) for PhD excellence in academic and social leadership (to L.H).

The partial results of this study were presented at the 4^th international congress on occupational & environmental toxicology (ICOETox2018) and awarded with Taylor & Francis certificate for an outstanding achievement of the oral presentation.

Declaration of interest/Disclosure statement

No potential conflicts of interest were disclosed.

Data availability statement

The identified data are available upon a request and approval of the local ethics committee and study principal investigator.