Gene Expression Network Analyses in Response to Air Pollution Exposures in the Trucking Industry
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ABSTRACT: To investigate the cellular responses induced by air pollution exposures, we performed genome-wide gene expression microarray analysis using whole blood RNA sampled at three time-points across the work weeks of 63 non-smoking employees in the trucking industry. Our objective was to identify the genes and gene networks differentially activated in response to micro-environmental measures of occupational exposure to three pollutants: PM2.5 (particulate matter ≤ 2.5 microns in diameter) and elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC).
Project description:Empirical evidence from both animals and humans suggest that PM2.5 (particulate matter < 2.5μm) exposure accelerates a variety of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) including Type 2 diabetes. We investigated whether chronic exposure to ambient air pollution (PM2.5), disrupts circadian rhythm to facilitate metabolic insulin resistance and compared the impact of inhaled ambient PM2.5 alone or in combination with continuous light exposure (LL). Exposure to PM2.5 induced peripheral IR, disrupted circadian steroid release, reduced peak oxygen consumption and altered brown adipose 18Ffluorodeoxyglucose uptake on PET imaging. These findings were identical to that seen with LL with no additive interaction between PM2.5 and LL. Transcriptome profiles in the liver revealed a number of differentially expressed circadian genes Bmal1 (Arntl/Npas2), Period (Per) and Cryptochrome (Cry) in response to PM2.5. Alteration in chromatin accessibility in circadian targets was observed with PM2.5 by Assay for Transposase-Accessible Chromatin using sequencing (ATAC-seq) while chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) analysis, showed a marked difference in promoter occupancy by p300. Our data suggest a previously unrecognized role of particulate air pollution in promoting circadian disruption and metabolic dysfunction through epigenetic regulation of multiple circadian targets
Project description:Chronic exposure to ambient particulate matter (PM) increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). One proposed mechanism linking PM exposure and CVD is the induction of low-grade systemic inflammation that underlies disease progression. However, the intermediaries that relay signals from the proximal sites of inflammation to the periphery remain unknown. We have previously shown that fine PM (PM2.5) alter red blood cell distribution width. Therefore, the overall goal of this study was to elucidate how PM exposure impacts the spleen and splenic macrophages which are primarily responsible for the turnover of aged and damaged red blood cells.
Project description:Chronic exposure to ambient particulate matter <2.5µ (PM2.5) has been linked to cardiopulmonary disease. Tissue-resident (TR) alveolar macrophages (AΦ) are long lived, self-renew and critical to the health impact of inhalational insults. There is inadequate understanding of the impact of PM2.5 exposure on nature/time course of transcriptional responses and the proliferation/maintenance of AΦ including the contribution from bone marrow (BM) over chronic time periods. We investigated the effects of exposure to real-world concentrated PM2.5 or filtered air (FA) in chimeric (CD45.2/CD45.1) mice. Here, we show that PM2.5 exposure induces an influx of BM-derived monocytes to lungs at 4-weeks, with no contribution to TR-AΦ population. Chronic (32-weeks) PM2.5 exposure resulted in enhanced apoptosis (Annexin V+) and decreased proliferation (BrdU+) of TR-AΦ and presence of BM-AΦ in inflamed lungs. RNA-seq analysis of flow sorted TR-AΦ and BM-AΦ from 4 and 32-weeks exposed mice, revealed a unique time dependent pattern of differentially expressed genes, with PM2.5 exposure with a pro-inflammatory bias. PM2.5 exposure resulted in pulmonary fibrosis and reduced alveolar fraction which corresponded to protracted lung inflammation. Our findings suggest a time dependent PM2.5 entrainment of a BM-derived monocytes infiltration into PM2.5 exposed lungs with an inflammatory phenotype, that together with enhanced apoptosis of TR-AΦ and pro-inflammatory polarization may contribute to perpetuation of chronic inflammation and lung fibrosis.
Project description:Expression profile of E. coli BW25113 grown under standard laboratory atmosphere with a fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration of 17 mg m-3, under urban polluted atmosphere with a PM2.5 of 230 mg m-3 or under diesel exhaust atmosphere with a PM2.5 of 613 mg m-3. Expression profile of the diesel exhaust atmosphere-adapted E. coli strain T56-1 grown under diesel exhaust atmosphere.
Project description:Epidemiological studies have demonstrated that exposure to particulate matter (PM) ambient pollution has adverse effects on lung health, exacerbated by cigarette smoking. Fine airborne particles <2.5 µm (PM2.5) are the most harmful of the urban pollutants, and the most closely linked to respiratory disease. Based on the knowledge that the small airway epithelium (SAE) plays a central role in pathogenesis of smoking-related lung disease, we hypothesized that elevated PM2.5 levels are associated with dysregulation of SAE gene expression.
Project description:As our results suggested that metformin acts to limit mitochondrial ROS and calcium-mediated activation of IL-6, we reasoned it would likely affect other processes in alveolar macrophages triggered by exposure to particulate matter (PM). Therefore, we treated mice with metformin in the drinking water for 24 hours before we instilled PM intratracheally. We then flow-sorted alveolar macrophages from whole lung homogenates 24 hours later for transcriptomic analysis (RNA-Seq).
Project description:Exposure to air pollution, including traffic-related pollutants, has been associated with a variety of adverse health outcomes, including increased cardiopulmonary morbidity and mortality, and increased lung cancer risk.To better understand the cellular responses induced by air pollution exposures, we performed genome-wide gene expression microarray analysis using whole blood RNA sampled at three time-points across the work weeks of 63 non-smoking employees at 10 trucking terminals in the northeastern US. We defined genes and gene networks that were differentially activated in response to PM2.5 (particulate matter???2.5 microns in diameter) and elemental carbon (EC) and organic carbon (OC).Multiple transcripts were strongly associated (padj?<?0.001) with pollutant levels (48, 260, and 49 transcripts for EC, OC, and PM2.5, respectively), including 63 that were statistically significantly correlated with at least two out of the three exposures. These genes included many that have been implicated in ischemic heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and other pollution-related illnesses. Through the combination of Gene Set Enrichment Analysis and network analysis (using GeneMANIA), we identified a core set of 25 interrelated genes that were common to all three exposure measures and were differentially expressed in two previous studies assessing gene expression attributable to air pollution. Many of these are members of fundamental cancer-related pathways, including those related to DNA and metal binding, and regulation of apoptosis and also but include genes implicated in chronic heart and lung diseases.These data provide a molecular link between the associations of air pollution exposures with health effects.
Project description:In this study, we modeled early life air pollution exposure using C57BL/6J male mice on a controlled chow diet, exposed to real-world inhaled concentrated PM2.5 (~10x ambient level/ ~60-120g/m3) or filtered air (FA) over 14 weeks. We investigated PM2.5 effects on phenotype, transcriptome and chromatin accessibility, compared the effects with a prototypical high-fat diet (HFD) stimulus, and examined the effects of cessation of exposure on reversibility of phenotype/genotype.
Project description:The overall goal of this proposal is to use blood non-targeted high resolution metabolomics (HRM) to investigate the hypothesis that regional air pollution (NO2, PM2.5 and O3) and traffic-related air pollution exposures (traffic-related particulate matter components including EC2.5 and PM2.5 transition metals, and CALINE model-predicted NOx) alter key metabolic pathway(s) and that these alterations are associated with obesity and type 2 diabetes-related traits during the important developmental period of adolesence in the ongoing prospective Chidlren's Health study (CHS). Specific Aim 1 will examine the adverse impact of environmental chemicals in fasting blood samples measured by HRM on obesity (i.e., total body fat and body mass index (BMI)), metabolic dysfunction (e.g., fasting glucose and insulin concentrations and insulin resistance), and obesity-induced inflammation (i.e., leptin) among 104 Southern California adolescents enrolled in the CHS. Specific Aim 2 will examine associations of childhood exposures to PM2.5 and traffic-related air pollutants (i.e., CALINE model-predicted NOx) with biological metabolites identified in fasting blood samples using HRM among 104 adolescents in the CHS. Specific Aim 3 will investigate the metabolic pathways linking air pollution exposures and obesity and type 2 diabetes-related traits using pathway analysis under bayesian hierarchical model among 104 adolescents in the CHS.
Project description:Zinc (Zn) is a major elemental component of respirable ambient particulate matter (PM) detected often at alarming levels in urban air. Exposure to PM has been widely associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, however, it is not known what components or sources of PM are causative. We recently demonstrated that long-term episodic inhalation of combustion PM, having similar amount of Zn found in urban PM, caused myocardial lesions in rats. We further demonstrated that a single pulmonary exposure to Zn at high concentration is associated with disturbances in cardiac mitochondrial function, ion channel regulation, calcium homeostasis, and cell signaling. Therefore, in this study we investigated the role of PM-associated Zn in cardiac injury using multiple exposure scenarios. Male Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats of 12-14 wks age were intratracheally exposed (once per wk x 8 or16 wks) to either (1) saline (control); (2) PM having no soluble Zn; (3) combustion PM suspension containing 14.5 ug/mg water-soluble Zn at high and (4) low dose levels, (5) the aqueous fraction of this suspension devoid of solid insoluble particulate fraction (14.5 ug/mg soluble Zn), or (6) Zn sulfate. Zn concentrations were identical in groups 3, 5 and 6. Pulmonary toxicity was apparent in all exposure groups when compared to saline as determined by recovery of cells in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. Long-term exposure to PM with or without soluble Zn, or Zn sulfate caused distinct myocardial lesions characterized by subepicardial and randomly distributed myocardial inflammation, degeneration, and fibrosis. The lesion severity was higher in those groups receiving Zn PM. Because cardiac mitochondria are likely the primary target of inhaled metal or other absorbed PM components, we analyzed mitochondrial DNA damage using QPCR and found that all exposure groups except those exposed to PM without Zn caused variable degree of damage. Aconitase activity, sensitive to inhibition by oxidative stress was inhibited slightly but significantly in rats receiving zinc sulfate. Although modest, microarray (Affymetrix) analysis revealed expression changes in the heart reflective of effects on cell signaling, inflammation/oxidative stress, mitochondrial fatty acid metabolisms and cell cycle regulation in rats exposed to zinc sulfate. However, these changes were minimal following exposure to PM devoid of soluble metals. We demonstrate that episodic subchronic pulmonary exposure to zinc sulfate causes cardiac injury and mitochondrial DNA damage. Thus, water-soluble PM-associated zinc may be one of the PM components responsible for cardiovascular morbidity. Experiment Overall Design: Group 1 received Saline to serve as a control. Group 2 received Mount St. Helenâs ash, which does not contain any water-soluble zinc or other metals such that we can delineate any cardiac effect secondary to pulmonary deposition of these particles as these fine mode particles themselves are not likely to translocate to the heart. Group 3 received whole saline suspension of the same fugitive oil combustion particle sample used in the previous study, which contained insoluble components plus water-soluble zinc (Kodavanti et al., 2003; 14.5 ug/mg zinc) and also a small amount of water-soluble nickel (3.0 µg/mg). Elemental composition of this PM is comparable to Ottawa urban PM (Kodavanti et al., 2003). Group 4 also received same particle sample but at half the dose than group 3. Group 5 received saline-soluble or leachable fraction of PM-HD devoid of any solid material but contained soluble components including zinc and nickel. And, group 6 received zinc sulfate at concentration that was present in groups 3 or 5. This design allowed us to test if cardiac injury in rats was due to leached of zinc or solid particles. There were 4 replicates per treatment group.