Recent evidence suggests that chronic exposure to high levels of ambient particulate matter (PM) is associated with decreased pulmonary function and the development of chronic airflow obstruction. To investigate the possible role of PM-induced abnormalities in the small airways in these functional changes, we examined histologic sections from the lungs of 20 women from Mexico City, a high PM locale. All subjects were lifelong residents of Mexico City, were never-smokers, never had occupational dust exposure, and never used biomass fuel for cooking. Twenty neversmoking, non-dust-exposed subjects from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, a low PM region, were used as a control. By light microscopy, abnormal small airways with fibrotic walls and excess muscle, many containing visible dust, were present in the Mexico City lungs. Formal grading analysis confirmed the presence of significantly greater amounts of fibrous tissue and muscle in the walls of the airways in the Mexico City compared with the Vancouver lungs. Electron microscopic particle burden measurements on four cases from Mexico City showed that carbonaceous aggregates of ultrafine particles, aggregates likely to be combustion products, were present in the airway mucosa. We conclude that PM penetrates into and is retained in the walls of small airways, and that, even in nonsmokers, long-term exposure to high levels of ambient particulate pollutants is associated with small airway remodeling. This process may produce chronic airflow obstruction.

Vanadium concentrations in lung tissue were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry from autopsy specimens taken from residents of Mexico City during the 1960s and 1990s (20 males and 19 females, and 30 males and 18 females, respectively). Samples from the 1990s had significantly increased mean vanadium concentrations (mean +/- standard deviation: 1.36 +/- 0.08), compared with those from the 1960s (1.04 +/- 0.05). Concentrations were not correlated with gender, smoking habit, age, cause of death, or occupation. These findings suggest that vanadium in ambient air is increasing and it represents a potential health hazard for Mexico City residents. Air pollution monitoring efforts should include vanadium concentrations in suspended particles to follow-up the findings reported herein. Researchers need to acquire a better knowledge of the levels of airborne vanadium exposure at which risk to human health occurs.

Glucose uptake is increased in hypertension. Thus we investigated Na+-glucose cotransporter (SGLT2) activity and expression in proximal tubules from renovascular hypertensive rats. Sham-operated rats, aortic coarctation rats, and aortic coarctation rats treated with either ramipril (2.5 mg.kg-1.day-1 for 21 days) or losartan (10 mg.kg-1.day-1 for 21 days) were used. Na+-dependent glucose uptake was measured in brush-border membrane vesicles (BBMV). Vmax in BBMV from hypertensive rats was greater compared with those from normotensive rats (3 +/- 0.2 vs. 1.5 +/- 0.1 nmol.mg protein-1.min-1) without a change in Km. Renal immunostaining was greater, and Western blot analysis and RT-PCR showed a higher expression of SGLT2 in hypertensive rats than in normotensive rats (1,029 +/- 71 vs. 5,003 +/- 292, 199 +/- 15 vs. 95 +/- 10, and 1.4 +/- 0.2 vs. 0.3 +/- 0.1 arbitrary units, respectively). In rats treated with either ramipril or losartan, Vmax decreased to 2.1 +/- 0.3 and 1.8 +/- 0.4 nmol.mg protein-1.min-1, respectively, as well as did the intensity of immunostaining and levels of protein and mRNA. We suggest that in renovascular hypertension, angiotensin II induced SGLT2 via the AT1 receptor, which was evidenced at both the functional and expression levels, probably contributing to increased absorption of Na+ and thereby to the development or maintenance of hypertension.

No abstract

No abstract