TY - JOUR
T1 - Alterations to the urinary metabolome following semi-controlled short exposures to ultrafine particles at a major airport
AU - Selley, Liza
AU - Lammers, Ariana
AU - le Guennec, Adrien
AU - Pirhadi, Milad
AU - Sioutas, Constantinos
AU - Janssen, Nicole
AU - Maitland - van der Zee, Anke H.
AU - Mudway, Ian
AU - Cassee, Flemming
N1 - Funding Information: Decreased taurine concentrations have been measured in the BALF of rats following ZnO inhalation, reflecting enhanced antioxidant activity within the pulmonary tissue. Supporting the suggestion that landing UFPs also triggered this protective response, taurine has been shown to alleviate oxidative stress, pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion, inflammatory cell recruitment, mitochondrial dysregulation, autophagy and emphysema in mouse lung following exposure to DEP or 1-nitropyrene (Kim et al.; Li et al., 1073). It is difficult to hypothesise why the observed change in taurine concentration associated more robustly with landing UFP. To date, no considerable differences have been reported in the composition of emissions produced during take-off and landing (Shirmohammadi et al., 2017). Although landing particles did account for the majority of UFP <20?nm at our sampling site (Pirhadi et al., 2020), their concentrations were strongly correlated with those of take-off particles (r?=?0.76), creating the possibility that the observed differences in effect size and significance were artefacts of collinearity within the model. While individuals are unlikely to only be exposed to landing UFP at an airport, confirming this observation and understanding its cause, could have bearing on future aviation engineering.The field work was funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructures and Water Management as part of grant M240045 and commissioned to the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. In addition, funding for data acquisition and analysis was provided by the Medical Research Council through a UKRI Innovation/Rutherford Fund Fellowship grant (RG95376), awarded to LS and by the Wellcome Trust and British Heart Foundation (ref. 202767/Z/16/Z and IG/16/2/32273, awarded to the King's Centre for Biomolecular Spectroscopy). IM is part funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, a partnership between Public Health England and Imperial College London. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, Public Health England or the Department of Health and Social Care. Funding Information: The field work was funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructures and Water Management as part of grant M240045 and commissioned to the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment. In addition, funding for data acquisition and analysis was provided by the Medical Research Council through a UKRI Innovation/Rutherford Fund Fellowship grant ( RG95376 ), awarded to LS and by the Wellcome Trust and British Heart Foundation (ref. 202767/Z/16/Z and IG/16/2/32273 , awarded to the King's Centre for Biomolecular Spectroscopy). IM is part funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Health Protection Research Unit in Environmental Exposures and Health, a partnership between Public Health England and Imperial College London . The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR, Public Health England or the Department of Health and Social Care. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Authors Copyright: Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/8/1
Y1 - 2021/8/1
N2 - Background: Inflammation, oxidative stress and reduced cardiopulmonary function following exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) from airports has been reported but the biological pathways underlying these toxicological endpoints remain to be explored. Urinary metabolomics offers a robust method by which changes in cellular pathway activity can be characterised following environmental exposures. Objective: We assessed the impact of short-term exposures to UFP from different sources at a major airport on the human urinary metabolome. Methods: 21 healthy, non-smoking volunteers (aged 19–27 years) were repeatedly (2–5 visits) exposed for 5h to ambient air at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, while performing intermittent, moderate exercise. Pre- to-post exposure changes in urinary metabolite concentrations were assessed via 1H NMR spectroscopy and related to total and source-specific particle number concentrations (PNC) using linear mixed effects models. Results: Total PNC at the exposure site was on average, 53,500 particles/cm 3 (range 10,500–173,200) and associated with significant reductions in urinary taurine (−0.262 AU, 95% CI: −0.507 to −0.020) and dimethylamine concentrations (−0.021 AU, 95% CI: −0.040 to −0.067). Aviation UFP exposure accounted for these changes, with the reductions in taurine and dimethylamine associating with UFP produced during both aircraft landing and take-off. Significant reductions in pyroglutamate concentration were also associated with aviation UFP specifically, (−0.005 AU, 95% CI: −0.010 – <0.000) again, with contributions from both landing and take-off UFP exposure. While non-aviation UFPs induced small changes to the urinary metabolome, their effects did not significantly impact the overall response to airport UFP exposure. Discussion: Following short-term exposures at a major airport, aviation-related UFP caused the greatest changes to the urinary metabolome. These were consistent with a heightened antioxidant response and altered nitric oxide synthesis. Although some of these responses could be adaptive, they appeared after short-term exposures in healthy adults. Further study is required to determine whether long-term exposures induce injurious effects.
AB - Background: Inflammation, oxidative stress and reduced cardiopulmonary function following exposure to ultrafine particles (UFP) from airports has been reported but the biological pathways underlying these toxicological endpoints remain to be explored. Urinary metabolomics offers a robust method by which changes in cellular pathway activity can be characterised following environmental exposures. Objective: We assessed the impact of short-term exposures to UFP from different sources at a major airport on the human urinary metabolome. Methods: 21 healthy, non-smoking volunteers (aged 19–27 years) were repeatedly (2–5 visits) exposed for 5h to ambient air at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, while performing intermittent, moderate exercise. Pre- to-post exposure changes in urinary metabolite concentrations were assessed via 1H NMR spectroscopy and related to total and source-specific particle number concentrations (PNC) using linear mixed effects models. Results: Total PNC at the exposure site was on average, 53,500 particles/cm 3 (range 10,500–173,200) and associated with significant reductions in urinary taurine (−0.262 AU, 95% CI: −0.507 to −0.020) and dimethylamine concentrations (−0.021 AU, 95% CI: −0.040 to −0.067). Aviation UFP exposure accounted for these changes, with the reductions in taurine and dimethylamine associating with UFP produced during both aircraft landing and take-off. Significant reductions in pyroglutamate concentration were also associated with aviation UFP specifically, (−0.005 AU, 95% CI: −0.010 – <0.000) again, with contributions from both landing and take-off UFP exposure. While non-aviation UFPs induced small changes to the urinary metabolome, their effects did not significantly impact the overall response to airport UFP exposure. Discussion: Following short-term exposures at a major airport, aviation-related UFP caused the greatest changes to the urinary metabolome. These were consistent with a heightened antioxidant response and altered nitric oxide synthesis. Although some of these responses could be adaptive, they appeared after short-term exposures in healthy adults. Further study is required to determine whether long-term exposures induce injurious effects.
KW - Airport
KW - Biomarkers
KW - Human exposure
KW - Metabolome
KW - Oxidative stress
KW - Ultrafine particles
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85114706569&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113803
DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2021.113803
M3 - Article
C2 - 34517159
SN - 1438-4639
VL - 237
JO - International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health
JF - International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health
M1 - 113803
ER -