Short-term effects of size-fractionated particulate matters and their constituents on renal function in children: A...

Evidence available on the effects of size-fractionated particulate matters and their constituents on children's renal function is lack. We conducted a longitudinal panel study among 144 children aged 4-12 years with up to 3 repeated visits from 2018 to 2019. We estimated the effects of size-fractionated particle number counts (PNCs) and their 13 constituents on estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) over different lag times with linear mixed-effects models and Bayesian kernel machine regression. We found the inverse dose-responsive associations of 3 sizes PNCs with eGFR were the strongest at lag 2 day. Compared to PNC_0.5, PNC₁ and PNC_2.5 showed stronger and similar effects on eGFR reduction. On average, an interquartile range increase in PNC_0.5, PNC₁ and PNC_2.5 were significantly associated with 1.70%, 2.82% and 2.76% decrease in eGFR, respectively. Girls were more susceptible to the toxicity of PNC₁ and PNC_2.5 exposure on eGFR. Several constituents including organic carbon (OC), Mg⁺, PO₃^- and HC₂O₄^- in 3 sizes PNCs were robustly and consistently linked to eGFR reduction at lag 2 day. Moreover, the cumulative effects of different constituents on lower eGFR were significant, when they were all at or above a size-independent threshold (the 60th, 65th, and 70th percentiles in PNC_0.5, PNC₁ and PNC_2.5 constituents, respectively), compared to their median value. And only OC displayed a significantly detrimental effect on eGFR when all the other constituents were fixed at 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. In summary, short-term exposure to PNCs were size-dependent related to reduced eGFR in dose-responsive manner among healthy children, and OC might play a more important role in PNC-induced nephrotoxicity than others.