Occupational exposure to diesel engine exhaust and alterations in immune/inflammatory markers: a cross-sectional molecular epidemiology study in China

Abstract

The relationship between diesel engine exhaust (DEE), a known lung carcinogen, and immune/inflammatory markers that have been prospectively associated with lung cancer risk is not well understood. To provide insight into these associations, we conducted a cross-sectional molecular epidemiology study of 54 males highly occupationally exposed to DEE and 55 unexposed male controls from representative workplaces in China. We measured plasma levels of 64 immune/inflammatory markers in all subjects using Luminex bead-based assays, and compared our findings to those from a nested case-control study of these markers and lung cancer risk, which had been conducted among never-smoking women in Shanghai using the same multiplex panels. Levels of nine markers that were associated with lung cancer risk in the Shanghai study were altered in DEE-exposed workers in the same direction as the lung cancer associations. Among these, associations with the levels of CRP (β= -0.53; P = 0.01) and CCL15/MIP-1D (β = 0.20; P = 0.02) were observed in workers exposed to DEE and with increasing elemental carbon exposure levels (Ptrends <0.05) in multivariable linear regression models. Levels of a third marker positively associated with an increased lung cancer risk, CCL2/MCP-1, were higher among DEE-exposed workers compared with controls in never and former smokers, but not in current smokers (Pinteraction = 0.01). The immunological differences in these markers in DEE-exposed workers are consistent with associations observed for lung cancer risk in a prospective study of Chinese women and may provide some insight into the mechanistic processes by which DEE causes lung cancer.

Household coal combustion, indoor air pollutants, and circulating immunologic/inflammatory markers in rural China

“…Taken together, combustion emissions from smoky coal may induce immunologic/inflammatory responses of greater magnitude compared to those derived from smokeless coal. CXCL11/I-TAC was the most notably altered marker when comparing smoky to smokeless coal and was also reduced in relation to increasing exposure to diesel engine exhaust, an established carcinogen (IARC 2014; Silverman 2018), in agreement with a previous molecular epidemiologic study (Bassig et al 2017). This overlap suggests that combustion emission components common to both smoky coal and diesel engine exhaust may influence immunologic/inflammatory parameters.…”

“…In addition, altered levels of some circulating immunologic/ inflammatory markers were found to be associated with future enhanced risk of lung cancer (Shiels et al 2013;. Further, an occupational study of men exposed to diesel engine exhaust emissions, which possesses common components similar to coal emissions, demonstrated altered levels of 9 immunologic/inflammatory markers that were previously linked to increased lung cancer risk in an investigation of never-smoking women (Bassig et al 2017;Shiels et al 2017).…”

miR-423 rs6505162 C>A polymorphism contributes to decreased Wilms tumor risk

“…Tumor tissues were obtained from all cases by surgery or needle biopsy for pathological examination. All Chinese Han patients were recruited from the Guangzhou Women and Children's Medical Center, mainly between March 2001 and June 2016 23 - 27 . In addition, 531 unrelated, age-, gender-, race-matched cancer-free volunteers recruited from the same medical centre were also enrolled 28 - 30 .…”

Design and Rationale of the Biomarker Center of the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) Trial

“…A field blank (described below) is collected after every 100 urine samples are collected. Additional biosamples are collected from the OAW in Peru and Guatemala to enable the exploration of novel cancer biomarkers (Bassig et al 2017;Shiels et al 2017) and omics analyses (see details below). For these women, nasal turbinate swabs, an oral rinse, buccal scrapes, and a venous blood draw are obtained.…”