Impact of airborne particulate matter on skin: a systematic review from epidemiology to in vitro studies

Abstract

Background: Air pollution is killing close to 5 million people a year, and harming billions more. Air pollution levels remain extremely high in many parts of the world, and air pollution-associated premature deaths have been reported for urbanized areas, particularly linked to the presence of airborne nano-sized and ultrafine particles. Main text: To date, most of the research studies did focus on the adverse effects of air pollution on the human cardiovascular and respiratory systems. Although the skin is in direct contact with air pollutants, their damaging effects on the skin are still under investigation. Epidemiological data suggested a correlation between exposure to air pollutants and aggravation of symptoms of chronic immunological skin diseases. In this study, a systematic literature review was conducted to understand the current knowledge on the effects of airborne particulate matter on human skin. It aims at providing a deeper understanding of the interactions between air pollutants and skin to further assess their potential risks for human health. Conclusion: Particulate matter was shown to induce a skin barrier dysfunction and provoke the formation of reactive oxygen species through direct and indirect mechanisms, leading to oxidative stress and induced activation of the inflammatory cascade in human skin. Moreover, a positive correlation was reported between extrinsic aging and atopic eczema relative risk with increasing particulate matter exposure.

Ursodeoxycholic Acid May Inhibit Environmental Aging-Associated Hyperpigmentation

“…Extrinsic aging can also be attributed to multiple factors other than UV radiation, such as exposure to PM. As the aggravation of air pollution has become a global issue, the detrimental effects of exposure to airborne pollutants have been actively investigated, and recent reports have suggested that exposure to PM may result in cutaneous hyperpigmentation as well as skin aging [ 8 , 9 ]. Although the exact molecular process implicated in PM-induced skin aging and hyperpigmentation, an increase in oxidative stress, which is also important in UV-induced aging, has been suggested to be a key process [ 10 ].…”

Variations in Reactive Oxygen Species Generation by Urban Airborne Particulate Matter in Lung Epithelial Cells—Impact of Inorganic Fraction

“…Such large heterogeneity of the naturally collected PM samples can impede the evaluation of the biological effects of PM and obstruct establishing of underlying toxicological mechanisms. Nowadays, standard reference materials for urban air pollutant are commercially available and widely used as the reference samples in various biological and chemical studies (Park et al, 2013 ; Courtois et al, 2014 ; Jiang et al, 2014 ; Lee et al, 2016 ; O'Driscoll et al, 2019 ; Dijkhoff et al, 2020 ).…”

Antioxidant and Reduced Skin Ageing Effects of A Polyphenol-Enriched Dietary Supplement in Response to Air Pollution: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study

“…PM induces oxidative stress, increases ROS production and secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, resulting in lipid peroxidation and DNA damage. This further increases matrix metalloproteinases, (MMPs)-1, -2, and -9, which degrade collagen [4]. Aside from solar radiation (UVR), pollution has been recognized as one of the driving factors that accelerates skin ageing, such as pigment spots on face, nasolabial folds, and wrinkles [5].…”

“…Skin exposure to PMs and other pollutants has been found to induce lipid peroxidation, as well as elevated levels of reactive aldehyde by-products like malondialdehyde (MDA)[4]. On the other hand, Total Antioxidant Capacity (TAC) is a recognized biomarker for measuring the antioxidant potential of body fluids that is also used to investigate oxidative stress in many pathological conditions[67].…”