Air Pollution and the Brain: Subchronic Diesel Exhaust Exposure Causes Neuroinflammation and Elevates Early Markers of Neurodegenerative Disease

From: Journal of Neuroinflammation, 2011.

http://www.jneuroinflammation.com/content/8/1/105

Journal of Neuroinflammation 2011, 8:105 doi:10.1186/1742-2094-8-105

Air Pollution & the Brain: Subchronic Diesel Exhaust Exposure Causes Neuroinflammation and Elevates Early Markers of Neurodegenerative Disease

Shannon Levesque¹, Michael J Surace¹, Jacob McDonald² and Michelle L Block

¹ Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Campus, Richmond, VA 23298, USA   ² Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, Albuquerque, NM, 87108, USA

The authors discuss the background for their study: “Increasing evidence links diverse forms of air pollution to neuroinflammation and neuropathology in both human and animal models, but the effects of long-term exposures are poorly understood.”

The authors found, “DE [Diesel Exhaust] exposure resulted in elevated levels of TNFα [tumor necrosis factor alpha, a cytokine  involved in systemic inflammation] at high concentrations in all regions tested, with the exception of the cerebellum. The midbrain region was the most sensitive, where exposures as low as 100 μg PM/m³ significantly increased brain TNFα levels.”

The authors conclude, “the data support that the midbrain may be more sensitive to the neuroinflammatory effects of subchronic air pollution exposure. However, the DE-induced elevation of proteins associated with neurodegenerative diseases was limited to only the higher exposures, suggesting that air pollution-induced neuroinflammation may precede preclinical markers of neurodegenerative disease in the midbrain.”

From Wikipedia:

Cytokines are small cell-signaling protein molecules that are secreted by the glial cells (non-neuronal cells that maintain homeostasis, form myelin, and provide support and protection for the brain’s neurons) of the nervous system and by numerous cells of the immune system.

The midbrain is “a portion of the central nervous system associated with vision, hearing, motor control, sleep/wake, arousal (alertness), and temperature regulation.”