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THE INFLUENCE OF PARTICULATE AIR POLLUTANTS ON ALLERGIC SENSITIZATION IN ANIMAL MODELS
Citation:
GILMOUR, M I. THE INFLUENCE OF PARTICULATE AIR POLLUTANTS ON ALLERGIC SENSITIZATION IN ANIMAL MODELS. Presented at Society of Toxicology Annual Meeting, Seattle, WA, March 16 - 20, 2008.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation will describe a range of environmental factors in urban air that have been implicated as having had a potential impact on susceptibility to the development of atopic allergy and asthma.
Description:
Air pollution has long been associated with detrimental health risks in susceptible populations including asthmatics. Experimental evidence in rodents indicates that inhaled or instilled air pollutants such as diesel exhaust particles (DEPs), residual oil fly ash or its constitutive metals, can cause lung injury, inflammation, and potentiate allergic airway responses. These effects which have also been demonstrated with particulates sampled from ambient air are dependent on the underlying chemistry. Genomic analysis of mouse lungs following instillation or inhalation of various particles show broad differences in pathways associated with immune signaling, cell metabolism and oxidative stress. Studies with human airway cell cultures have shown similar alterations in cell signaling and may provide an in vitro high throughput screening framework for predicting allergic adjuvant effects. This presentation will describe a range of environmental factors in urban air that have been implicated as having had a potential impact on susceptibility to the development of atopic allergy and asthma. Included among those considered will be diesel exhaust particles, and ambient air samples. The relative importance of such factors, and the mechanistic basis for their action, will be discussed. (This abstract does not reflect EPA policy)