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Stretching the Stress Boundary: Linking Air Pollution Health Effects to a Neurohormonal Stress Response
Citation:
Kodavanti, U. Stretching the Stress Boundary: Linking Air Pollution Health Effects to a Neurohormonal Stress Response. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta. Elsevier Science Ltd, New York, NY, 1860(12):2880-90, (2016).
Impact/Purpose:
This is a review paper which provides information on the new lab findings that allow linking multiorgan effects of inhaled air pollutants to the activation of neurohormonal stress response pathway. This invited review is based on new studies show that ozone multiorgan and even lung effects are mediated through activation of sympathetic and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal stress axis. This mechanism has been proposed as a common pathway that can be involved in effects occurring from many types of environmental exposures.
Description:
Inhaled pollutants produce effects in virtually all organ systems in our body and have been linked to chronic diseases including hypertension, atherosclerosis, Alzheimer’s and diabetes. A neurohormonal stress response (referred here as a systemic response produced by activation of sympathetic nervous system and hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis) has been implicated in a variety of psychological and physical stresses, which involves immune and metabolic homeostatic mechanisms affecting all organs in the body. In this review, we provide new evidence for the involvement of this well-characterized neurohormonal stress response in mediating systemic and pulmonary effects of a prototypic air pollutant - ozone. A plethora of systemic metabolic and immune effects are induced in animals exposed to inhaled pollutants, which could result from increased circulating stress hormones. The release of adrenal-derived stress hormones in response to ozone exposure not only mediates systemic immune and metabolic responses, but by doing so, it also modulates pulmonary injury and inflammation. With recurring pollutant exposures, these effects can contribute to multi organ chronic conditions associated with air pollution. This review will cover, 1) the potential mechanisms by which air pollutants can relay the signal from respiratory tract to brain through trigeminal and vagus nerves, and activate stress responsive regions including hypothalamus; and 2) the contribution of sympathetic and HPA-axis activation in mediating systemic homeostatic metabolic and immune effects of ozone in various organs. The potential contribution of chronic environmental stress in cardiovascular, neurological, reproductive and metabolic diseases, and the knowledge gaps are also discussed.
