Down-regulation of the inflammatory response after short-term exposure to low levels of chemical vapours

Abstract

ObjectiveTo investigate the relation between signs and symptoms of irritation and biomarkers of inflammatory markers in blood in healthy volunteers exposed to different chemical vapours for 2 or 4 hours in an exposure chamber.MethodsThe investigated chemicals were: acetic acid (5 and 10 ppm), acrolein (0.05 and 0.1 ppm), 1,4-dioxane (20 ppm), n-hexanal (2 and 10 ppm), hydrogen peroxide (0.5 and 2.2 ppm), 2-propanol (150 ppm), m-xylene (50 ppm), standard and dearomatised white spirit (100 and 300 mg/m3). C reactive protein (CRP), serum amyloid A protein and interleukin 6 were measured in plasma immediately before and 2 or 4 hours after the exposures. Symptoms were rated from 0 to 100 mm in Visual Analogue Scales and covered 10 questions whereof four related to irritation: discomfort in the eyes, nose and throat and dyspnoea. The effect measurements included blink frequency by electromyography, nasal swelling by acoustic rhinometry and lung function by spirometry.ResultsLogistic quantile regression analyses revealed no significant associations except a negative relation between ratings of irritation and CRP.ConclusionThe results suggest a down-regulation of CRP after short-term exposure to low levels of vapours of irritating chemicals. This response might be mediated by the cholinergic anti-inflammatory pathway and further studies are recommended in order to refute or confirm this hypothesis.

Porphyrins Anchored onto Colour Catcher®: Photoactive Material for the Conversion of Amines into Imines and Aldehydes into Carboxylic Acids

“…Thus, we decided to better investigate this reaction that, alongside being a synthetic method for producing acids, can be considered a valuable method to establish the presence of aldehydes. These result assumes a relevance in view of the importance in developing analytical methods for aldehyde detection because these compounds (i. e. n ‐hexanal) can be considered markers of critical situations such us degradation of stored foods, [43] health hazards due to stored wood pellets [44,45] and medical diseases like pulmonary diseases and lung cancer [46,47] …”