The Acute Effect of Diesel Exhaust Particles and Different Fractions Exposure on Blood Coagulation Function in Mice

The toxicity and widespread exposure opportunity of diesel exhaust particles (DEP) has aroused public health concerns. This study aimed to investigate the acute effect of DEP and different fractions exposure on blood coagulation function in mice. In this study, nine- week-old C57BL/6J male mice were divided into four exposure groups (with 15 mice in each group). The water-soluble (WS) and water-insoluble (WIS) fractions of DEP were isolated, and intratracheal instillation was used for DEP, WS and WIS exposure. The phosphate buffer saline (PBS) exposure group was set as the control group. After 24 h exposure, the mice were sacrificed for blood routine, coagulation function and bleeding time examinations to estimate the acute effect of DEP, WS and WIS exposure on the blood coagulation function. In our results, no statistically significant difference in weight of body, brain and lung was observed in different exposure groups. While several core indexes in blood coagulation like bleeding time (BT), fibrinogen (FIB), activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) and prothrombin time (PT) altered or showed a lower tendency after DEP, WS and WIS exposure. For example, BT was lower In WIS exposure group (211.00 s) compared with PBS exposure group (238.50 s) (p < 0.01), and FIB was lower in WS exposure group (233.00 g/L) compared with PBS exposure group (249.50 g/L) (p < 0.05). Additionally, systemic inflammation-related indexes like white blood cell count (WBC), neutrophil count (NEUT), lymphocyte count (LYMPH) altered after DEP, WS and WIS exposure. In conclusion, DEP, WS and WIS fractions exposure could result in the hypercoagulable state of blood in mice. The noteworthy effects of WS and WIS fractions exposure on blood coagulation function deserve further investigation of the potential mechanism.