You are here:
Role of housing enrichment in mitigating development of cardiovascular disease in an atherosclerosis susceptible population
Citation:
Fiamingo, M., K. Lee, S. Toler, W. Oshiro, Q. Krantz, P. Evansky, D. Davies, Matthew Gilmour, A. Farraj, AND M. Hazari. Role of housing enrichment in mitigating development of cardiovascular disease in an atherosclerosis susceptible population. NC Society of Toxicology, Durham, NC, September 14, 2023.
Impact/Purpose:
This study describes the impact of living environment on the response of atherosclerosis prone to eucalyptus wildfire smoke. It demonstrates a divergence of effects and the importance of housing on health and well-being.
Description:
The American Heart Association released a scientific statement describing the importance of the physical and social environment on cardiovascular health. Housing is recognized as a major social determinant of cardiovascular health, as decreases in neighborhood environments can increase psychosocial stress and allostatic load. However, the interplay between depleted housing and environmental chemical exposures remains understudied, specifically for populations that have pre-existing cardiovascular morbidities. This study sought to examine the effects of enriched (EH) versus depleted (DH) housing on the cardiovascular response to a single 0.4mg/m3 flaming eucalyptus wildfire smoke (WS) exposure in male and female apolipoprotein E (ApoE) knockout mice, which develop atherosclerosis spontaneously. Mice were kept in either EH or DH for 18 weeks and high-frequency echocardiography was conducted 1-wk before the WS exposure, 24-hrs post-WS exposure, and 1-wk post-WS exposure. There were significant sex differences in the cardiovascular response to both housing and WS. Here, male DH mice showed a decreased fractional shortening, and after exposure to WS exhibited a decrease in ejection fraction (EF) and stroke volume (SV), and an increase in isovolumic relaxation time (IVRT). These changes imply that DH elicits left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in male ApoE (-/-) mice following a single WS exposure. Females, on the other hand, exhibited hemodynamic changes, with increases in the myocardial performance index (MPI) 24-hours after the exposure, and increases in IVRT and the ratio between pulmonary acceleration time (PAT) and pulmonary ejection time (PET) 1-wk post-exposure. This is indicating a global decline in left ventricular functioning and decreased right ventricular systolic pressure, respectively. Hence, these results suggests that depleted living conditions worsen the cardiovascular response to a single WS exposure in both male and female mice and implicate the need to evaluate non-chemical stressors as a modifier of the toxicological response. (This abstract does not reflect EPA policy).