Associations of Particulate Matter Sizes and Chemical Constituents with Blood Lipids: A Panel Study in Guangzhou, China

He, Zhi-Zhou; Guo, Peng-Yue; Xu, Shu-Li; Zhou, Yang; Jalaludin, Bin; Leskinen, Ari; Knibbs, Luke D.; Heinrich, Joachim ; Morawska, Lidia; Yim, Steve Hung-Lam; Bui, Dinh; Komppula, Mika; Roponen, Marjut; Hu, Liwen; Chen, Gongbo; Zeng, Xiao-Wen; Yu, Yunjiang; Yang, Bo-Yi and Dong, Guanghui (2021): Associations of Particulate Matter Sizes and Chemical Constituents with Blood Lipids: A Panel Study in Guangzhou, China. In: Environmental Science & Technology, Vol. 55, No. 8: pp. 5065-5075

Abstract

Existing evidence is scarce concerning the various effects of different PM sizes and chemical constituents on blood lipids. A panel study that involved 88 healthy college students with five repeated measurements (440 blood samples in total) was performed. We measured mass concentrations of particulate matter with diameters <= 2.5 mu m (PM2.5), <= 1.0 mu m (PM1.0), and <= 0.5 mu m (PM0.5) as well as number concentrations of particulate matter with diameters <= 0.2 mu m (PN0.2) and <= 0.1 mu m (PN0.1). We applied linear mixed-effect models to assess the associations between short-term exposure to different PM size fractions and PM2.5 constituents and seven lipid metrics. We found significant associations of greater concentrations of PM in different size fractions within 5 days before blood collection with lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and apolipoprotein A (ApoA1) levels, higher apolipoprotein B (ApoB) levels, and lower ApoA1/ApoB ratios. Among the PM2.5 constituents, we observed that higher concentrations of tin and lead were significantly associated with decreased HDL-C levels, and higher concentrations of nickel were associated with higher HDL-C levels. Our results suggest that short-term exposure to PM in different sizes was deleteriously associated with blood lipids. Some constituents, especially metals, might be the major contributors to the detrimental effects.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Medicine > Institute and Polyclinic for Occupational, Social and Environmental Medicine
• Subjects: 600 Technology > 610 Medicine and health
• ISSN: 0013-936X
• Language: English