The Effects of Air Pollution on the Brain: a Review of Studies Interfacing Environmental Epidemiology and Neuroimaging

Prado-Bert, Paula de; Mercader, Elisabet Mae Henderson; Pujol, Jesús; Sunyer, Jordi; Mortamais, Marion

doi:10.1007/s40572-018-0209-9

Cited by 154 publications

(100 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…In addition to possible associations between exposure to air pollution and reduced volume in specific brain regions, such as smaller hippocampal volume [9], exposure to air pollution might also be associated with reduced overall gray-matter and white-matter volume. In this regard, exposure to air pollution has been associated with smaller white-matter volume in children and adult women [10][11][12], with reduced gray-matter and white-matter volume in older adults [11], and with reduced total cerebral volume in older adults [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between Exposure to Air Pollution and Total Gray Matter and Total White Matter Volumes in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

et al. 2020

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Total brain gray-matter and white-matter volumes can be indicators of overall brain health. Among the factors associated with gray-matter and white-matter volumes is exposure to air pollution. Using data from the UK Biobank, we sought to determine associations between several components of air pollution—PM2.5, PM2.5–10, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxides—and total gray-matter and total white-matter volumes in multivariable regression models in a large sample of adults. We found significant inverse associations between PM2.5 concentration and total white-matter volume and between PM2.5, PM2.5–10, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, and nitrogen oxide concentrations and total gray-matter volume in models adjusted for age, sex, body-mass index, self-assessment of overall health, frequency of alcohol use, smoking status, educational attainment, and income. These findings of pollutant-associated decreases in total gray-matter and total white-matter volumes are in the context of mean PM2.5 concentrations near the upper limit of the World Health Organization’s recommendations. Similarly, mean PM10 concentrations were below the recommended upper limit, and nitrogen dioxide concentration was slightly above. Still, there are many areas in the world with much higher concentrations of these pollutants, which could be associated with larger effects. If replicated, these findings suggest that air pollution could be a risk factor for neurodegeneration.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between Exposure to Air Pollution and Total Gray Matter and Total White Matter Volumes in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

et al. 2020

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“…Children are particularly susceptible to air pollutants, and pre-and/or postnatal exposure may negatively affect their CNS [35]. Recently, several investigation studies have integrated magnetic resonance imaging of the brain with epidemiology, showing that long-term exposure to air pollution might have adverse impacts on the human brain [36]. A recent study has shown that prenatal exposure to PM 2.5 may be associated with a corpus callosum (CC) volume decrease in children.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particulate Matter Exposure and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children: A Systematic Review of Epidemiological Studies

Donzelli

Llópis-González

Llopis-Morales

et al. 2019

IJERPH

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Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common cognitive and behavioural disorder affecting children, with a worldwide-pooled prevalence of around 5%. Exposure to particulate matter (PM) air pollution is suspected to be associated with autism spectrum disorders and recent studies have investigated the relationship between PM exposure and ADHD. In the absence of any synthesis of the relevant literature on this topic, this systematic review of epidemiological studies aimed to investigate the relationship between the exposure of children to PM and ADHD and identify gaps in our current knowledge. In December 2018, we searched the PubMed and EMBASE databases. We only included epidemiological studies carried out on children without any age limit, measuring PM exposure and health outcomes related to ADHD. We assessed the quality of the articles and the risk of bias for each included article using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale and the Office of Health Assessment and Translation (OHAT) approach, respectively. The keyword search yielded 774 results. Twelve studies with a total number of 181,144 children met our inclusion criteria, of which 10 were prospective cohort studies and 2 were cross-sectional studies. We subsequently classified the selected articles as high or good quality studies. A total of 9 out of the 12 studies reported a positive association between PM exposure to outdoor air pollution and behavioral problems related to attention. Despite these results, we found a significant degree of heterogeneity among the study designs. Furthermore, 11 studies were judged to be at a probably high risk of bias in the exposure assessment. In conclusion, we opine that further high quality studies are still needed in order to clarify the association between PM exposure and ADHD diagnosis

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“…Imaging methods allow a more precise and accelerated diagnosis of numerous diseases related to the exposition of air pollutants; investigators from different parts of the world are using imaging methods such as plain radiography [42], ultrasonography (US), echocardiography [9], computed tomography (CT) [43] and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) [7], to help us understand environmental disease pathophysiology and evolution ( Table 2).…”

Section: Imaging Methods Used In the Assessment Of Environmental Disementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Air pollution is a combination of diverse gases and particles; pollutants that represent a significant public health problem involve particulate matter (PM), a mixture of elemental and organic carbon, polycyclic aromatic (PAH) and metals hydrocarbons, ozone (O 3 ), carbon monoxide (CO), lead, sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) [7].. They are derived from the various natural and anthropogenic origin.…”

Section: Chemical Substances Linked To Environmental Diseasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Prospective studies combining epidemiological and neuroimaging variables may (1) use repeated brain MRI to understand the connection of traffic-related air pollution in brain development changes and ageing diseases, (2) to evaluate children at risk with early MRI and (3) to discover new complex associations between fMRI data, acute exposure to TRAP and neuropsychological confounders such as cognition, psychomotor and social-emotional changes, in the induction of brain changes [7,98].…”

Section: Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Imaging methods used in the assessment of environmental disease networks: a brief review for clinicians

2020

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Background: Across the globe, diseases secondary to environmental exposures have been described, and it was also found that existing diseases have been modified by exposure to environmental chemicals or an environmental factor that has been found in their pathogenesis. The Institute of Medicine has shared a permanent concern related to the nations environmental health capacity since 1988.Main body: Contemporary imaging methods in the last 15 years started reporting alterations in different human systems such as the central nervous system, cardiovascular system and pulmonary system among others; evidence suggests the existence of a human environmental disease network. The primary anatomic regions, affected by environmental diseases, recently assessed with imaging methods include Brain (lead exposure, cerebral stroke, pesticide neurotoxicity), uses MRI, DTI, carotid ultrasonography and MRS; Lungs (smoke inhalation, organophosphates poisoning) are mainly assessed with radiography; Gastrointestinal system (chronic inflammatory bowel disease), recent studies have reported the use of aortic ultrasound; Heart (myocardial infarction), its link to environmental diseased has been proved with carotid ultrasound; and Arteries (artery hypertension), the impairment of aortic mechanical properties has been revealed with the use of aortic and brachial ultrasound. Conclusions:Environmental epidemiology has revealed that several organs and systems in the human body are targets of air pollutants. Current imaging methods that can assess the deleterious effects of pollutants includes a whole spectrum: radiography, US, CT and MRI. Future studies will help to reveal additional links among environmental disease networks.

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The Effects of Air Pollution on the Brain: a Review of Studies Interfacing Environmental Epidemiology and Neuroimaging

Cited by 154 publications

References 75 publications

Association between Exposure to Air Pollution and Total Gray Matter and Total White Matter Volumes in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Association between Exposure to Air Pollution and Total Gray Matter and Total White Matter Volumes in Adults: A Cross-Sectional Study

Particulate Matter Exposure and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Children: A Systematic Review of Epidemiological Studies

Imaging methods used in the assessment of environmental disease networks: a brief review for clinicians

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