According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical, by a team of researchers, including an Indian-origin scientist Sanjay Rajagopalan, air pollution may play a role in the development of cardiometabolic diseases such as diabetes.
The study also says that apart from diabetes, air pollution can also play a role in other fatal problem such as heart attack and stroke.
“In this study, we created an environment that mimicked a polluted day in New Delhi or Beijing,” Indian-origin researcher Sanjay Rajagopalan, who was the lead author of the study, said.
“We concentrated fine particles of air pollution called PM2.5. Concentrated particles like this develop from human impact on the environment, such as automobile exhaust, power generation and other fossil fuels,” he added.
These particles were found to have played a very strong role in causing risk factors for many fatal diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
The research team has shown that cardiovascular effects of air pollution may cause stroke, and heart attack.
The researchers found the common risk factors caused by the prolonged exposure to air in both conditions type 2 diabetes and heart attack.
The research was conducted in the mouse model, in which three groups were observed.
- Clean filtered air was given to the controlled group
- Second group was exposed to air pollution for 24 weeks,
- And the third group was fed a high-fat diet.
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Interestingly, the researchers found that exposed to air pollution is as dangerous as eating a high-fat diet.
The group which was given polluted air to breathe and the group which was fed on a high-fat diet showed insulin resistance. Abnormal metabolism was also a common factor in both these groups.
These changes were associated with changes in the epigenome. Epigenome is a multi-layered chemical compounds, that can turn on and off thousands of genes. These genes act as a critical buffer in response to air pollution and other risk factors associated with environment.
This study is different from the previous studies, as none of them had compared genome-wide epigenetic changes in response to air pollution. The latest study not only compared the two, it also compared and contrasted theses with that of eating a high-fat diet. Then, they observed the impact of air pollution cessation on these changes.
There is good news as well. Adverse effects caused by air pollution are not irreversible. Once, the mice were made to breath clean air, they appeared healthier. Even the pre-diabetic symptoms started disappearing after the air pollution was removed.
Long-term exposure to air pollution linked to impaired breathing in children
According to a research presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress recently, babies who are not breathing clean air have poorer lung function as compared to babies who don’t are not exposed to air pollution.
The study found that the risk factors caused by air pollution can be minimized if babies are breastfed for at least 12 weeks.
Another study presented at the Congress, shows that even a low level of air pollution can cause asthma in a long run.
Researchers say their findings indicate that more needs to be done to reduce levels of air pollution to protect children’s developing lungs and prevent asthma in adults.
Dr Qi Zhao from IUF – Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine in Düsseldorf, Germany, presented the first study. The Second study included 23,000 Danish nurses who were recruited to the study in either 1993 or 1999.