Effects of short-term PM2.5 exposure on blood lipids among 197,957 people in eastern China

Abstract

Globally, air pollution is amongst the most significant causes of premature death. Nevertheless, studies on the relationship between fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure and blood lipids have typically not been population-based. In a large, community-based sample of residents in Yixing city, we assessed the relationship between short-term outdoor PM2.5 exposure and blood lipid concentrations. Participants who attended the physical examination were enrolled from Yixing People’s hospital from 2015 to 2020. We collected general characteristics of participants, including gender and age, as well as test results of indicators of blood lipids. Data on daily meteorological factors were collected from the National Meteorological Data Sharing Center (http://data.cma.cn/) and air pollutant concentrations were collected from the China Air Quality Online Monitoring and Analysis Platform (https://www.aqistudy.cn/) during this period. We applied generalized additive models to estimate short-term effects of ambient PM2.5 exposure on each measured blood lipid-related indicators and converted these indicators into dichotomous variables (non- hyperlipidemia and hyperlipidemia) to calculate risks of hyperlipidemia associated with PM2.5 exposure. A total of 197,957 participants were included in the analysis with mean age 47.90 years (± SD, 14.28). The increase in PM2.5 was significantly associated with hyperlipidemia (odds ratio (OR) 1.003, 95% CI 1.001–1.004), and it was still significant in subgroups of males and age < 60 years. For every 10 μg/m3 increase in PM2.5, triglyceride levels decreased by 0.5447% (95% CI − 0.7873, − 0.3015), the low-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration increased by 0.0127 mmol/L (95% CI 0.0099, 0.0156), the total cholesterol concentration increased by 0.0095 mmol/L (95% CI 0.0053, 0.0136), and no significant association was observed between PM2.5 and the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration. After excluding people with abnormal blood lipid concentrations, the associations remained significant except for the high-density lipoprotein cholesterol concentration. PM2.5 was positively correlated with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and total cholesterol, and negatively correlated with triglyceride, indicating PM2.5 can potentially affect health through blood lipid levels.

The impact of co-exposure to air and noise pollution on the incidence of metabolic syndrome from a health checkup cohort

“…Previous studies have indicated that long-term exposure to ambient air pollutants, including PM 2.5 , could increase the risk of MetS 11 – 13 . Increased exposure to PM 2.5 has also been found to contribute to increased incidences or prevalence of obesity 14 , 15 , diabetes 16 – 18 , hypertension 19 – 21 , dyslipidemia 22 , 23 and low HDL 24 , 25 .…”

Identifying the Relationship between PM2.5 and Hyperlipidemia Using Mendelian Randomization, RNA-seq Data and Model Mice Subjected to Air Pollution

“…Nevertheless, Mao et al demonstrated that the increment of PM 2.5 is related to the increase in TC, LDL-C, hypercholesterolemia, hyperbetalipoproteinemia, and hypoalphalipoproteinemia, and associated with the decrease in TG and HDL-C [27]. Therefore, the relationship between exposure to atmospheric fine particulate matter and plasma TC is mostly positive, while the relationship between exposure and TG is positive in some studies [23,25,28] and negative in others [19,27,29]. Regarding the air pollution animal model, Song et al found that after exposure to PM 2.5 and filtered air (FA), TG and TC levels were increased, and HDL was decreased in both C57BL/6 and db/db mice [30].…”