Exposure to Traffic-Related Air Pollution and Serum Inflammatory Cytokines in Children

Long-term exposure to ambient air pollution can lead to adverse health effects in children; however, underlying biological mechanisms are not fully understood.

We evaluated the effect of air pollution exposure during different time periods on mRNA expression as well as circulating levels of inflammatory cytokines in children.

We measured a panel of 10 inflammatory markers in peripheral blood samples from 670 8-y-old children in the Barn/Child, Allergy, Milieu, Stockholm, Epidemiology (BAMSE) birth cohort. Outdoor concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and particulate matter (PM) with aerodynamic diameter <10 μm (PM₁₀) from road traffic were estimated for residential, daycare, and school addresses using dispersion modeling. Time-weighted average exposures during infancy and at biosampling were linked to serum cytokine levels using linear regression analysis. Furthermore, gene expression data from 16-year-olds in BAMSE (n=238) were used to evaluate links between air pollution exposure and expression of genes coding for the studied inflammatory markers.

A 10 μg/m³ increase of NO₂ exposure during infancy was associated with a 13.6% (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.8; 28.1%) increase in interleukin-6 (IL-6) levels, as well as with a 27.8% (95% CI: 4.6, 56.2%) increase in IL-10 levels, the latter limited to children with asthma. However, no clear associations were observed for current exposure. Results were similar using PM₁₀, which showed a high correlation with NO₂. The functional analysis identified several differentially expressed genes in response to air pollution exposure during infancy, including IL10, IL13, and TNF;.

Our results indicate alterations in systemic inflammatory markers in 8-y-old children in relation to early-life exposure to traffic-related air pollution. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP460.