For the first time, a study investigates the association between early exposure to air pollution and white matter microstructure throughout adolescence in a large sample of people.
It was known that exposure to certain pollutants, such as fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and nitrogen oxides (NOx), during pregnancy and childhood is associated with differences in the microstructure of the white matter of the brain, but now also Some of these effects have been seen to persist throughout adolescence.
Public health problem
This is indicated by a work led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) a center promoted by the ”la Caixa” Foundation. The results, published in Environmental Researchhighlight the importance of addressing air pollution as a public health problem, especially for pregnant women and children.
There is growing evidence that air pollution affects children’s neurological development. Recent studies using imaging techniques have analyzed the impact of atmospheric pollutants on the white matter of the brain, which plays a crucial role in connecting different brain regions. However, these studies were limited in that they only looked at one time point and did not follow participants throughout childhood.
“We thought that following participants throughout childhood and including two neuroimaging evaluations for each child would shed new light on whether the effects of air pollution on white matter persist, attenuate or worsen,” says Mònica Guxens, ISGlobal researcher. . And that is precisely what she and her team did.
Large sample of participants
The study included more than 4,000 participants who had been followed since birth as part of the Generation R Study in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
According to the analysis, greater exposure to PM2.5 during pregnancy and greater exposure to PM2.5, PM10, PM2.5-10, and NO X during childhood were associated with lower levels of a measure called fractional anisotropy, which measures how water molecules diffuse within the brain. This association persisted throughout adolescence.
Lower fractional anisotropy would lead to neuroinflammation, oxidative stress, and eventually neuronal death, as has been documented in animal studies.
The study also found that some pollutants were linked to changes in another measure of white matter, called mean diffusivity, which reflects the integrity of white matter and tends to increase as the brain matures.
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