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Great Lakes Air Center for Integrative Environmental Research

Michigan State University

GLACIER is a multidisciplinary center with the objective to explore one of the most prevalent and important global health-environment interfaces: the interrelationships between facets of the cardiometabolic syndrome (CMS) and air pollution. CMS is among the leading causes of death and threats to worldwide health. In tandem, exposure to air pollution, most notably fine particle matter (PM2.5), remains highly prevalent and ranks among the leading causes of global mortality. Inter-relationships and health impacts of this burgeoning confluence between these two epidemics are of tremendous importance to elucidate. Our previous research has elucidated that PM2.5 exposure plays a critical, yet under-appreciated, role in eliciting or exacerbating several key facets of the CMS-including elevating blood pressure, impairing vascular function, and even worsening metabolic insulin sensitivity and adiposity over a chronic duration. We have also found that the location of exposure, multipollutant context, and constituents within PM2.5 affect the responses. The full extent and importance of inter-relationships between CMS and air pollution, individual susceptibility, specific pollution components, multipollutant atmospheres, PM2.5 - ozone (O3) coexposures, and underlying mechanisms of toxicity are all key issues remaining to be clarified. Our center’s overall hypothesis is that PM2.5 and O3 are 1) capable of eliciting multiple important adverse cardiometabolic health effects that are dependent on 2) the local multipollutant milieu, 3) an individual’s pre-existing cardiovascular (CV) and metabolic condition (susceptibility), and 4) the interactive toxicity of PM2.5 and O3 coexposure.

Center Publications:

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Main Center Abstract and Reports:

Great Lakes Air Center for Integrative Environmental Research (GLACIER)

Center Research Projects:

R834797C001 - Cardiometabolic Effects of Exposure to Differing Mixtures and Concentrations of PM2.5 in Obese and Lean Adults

R834797C002 - Cardiometabolic, Autonomic, and Airway Toxicity of Acute Exposures to PM2.5 from Multipollutant Atmospheres in the Great Lakes Region

R834797C003 - Long Term Metabolic Consequences of Exposures to Multipollutant Atmospheres in the Great Lakes Region