TOXICITY OF SUBWAY AIR POLLUTANTS
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- Research Group
Jia Mi
Division of Physiological Chemistry II, Dept of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics, KI: Crag Wheelock, Susanna Divison of Respiratory Medicine, Dept of Medicine, KI: Anders Eklund, Johan Grunewald
- External Collaborators
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Dept of Public Health Sciences, KI: Britt-Marie Larsson, Magnus Svartengren
- Description
Subway is a primary means of transportation in most metropolitan areas worldwide, and as such represents a major source of exposure for millions of people daily. In Stockholm, more than one million passengers utilize the subway system every day. However, the subway is also an important source of particulate matter (PM), which is a known factor in causing exacerbations in patients with chronic respiratory disease, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Even though recent in vitro studies have reported that PM generated from the subway is much more genotoxic than PM generated at the street level, the toxic effects of exposure to the subway environment has yet to be investigated, particularly in terms of sensitive subpopulation with respiratory diseases. In this study, we investigate how acute exposure to subway environment affects the lower respiratory tract of mildly asthmatic subjects in contrast to healthy individuals. The main objective is to study the molecular response of the respiratory system to Stockholm subway air pollutants by quantifying alterations in lipid- and protein-mediator release in the lower respiratory tract. To this end, proteomics and lipidomics profiling are performed on samples obtained through bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) from both healthy and mildly asthmatic human volunteers. By integrating the resulting omics data with immunological characterizations performed by our collaborators at the Department of Public Health Sciences, we hope to elucidate the mechanistic differences at a systems level in the toxicological response of asthmatic and healthy individual following exposure to sub way air pollutants.
