A Preliminary Metabolomics Study on Air Pollution Associated Acute Biomarkers of Health Effect Based on a Migration Panel between Los Angeles and Beijing

A panel study was conducted between Los Angeles and Beijing with 14 healthy young subjects of exchange students from University of California Los Angeles. Urine samples were collected repeatedly and analyzed with a metabolomics approach based on gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) to investigate the markers of early biological response. Multivariate statistical analyses were applied to screen the significantly changed metabolites, which were further identified based on GC-MS signals. Meanwhile, concentrations of ambient air pollution in the communities where subjects lived were cited from monitoring stations, and a linear mixed-effects model was used to estimate the association between oxidative damage biomarkers and concentration of gaseous pollutants and PM2.5. The results indicated that these discriminating metabolites between Los Angeles and Beijing were related to energy metabolism, oxidative damage, gastrointestinal flora, metabolism of protein and RNA (such as cell apoptosis). Effect of oxidative damage especially stood out in Beijing, with allantoin as well as L-cystine and pseudouridine as significantly changed biomarkers. The results also showed a potential positively association between allantoin and PM2.5 in prior 0-96 h, CO in prior 0-24 h, NO2 in prior 24-48 h, O3 in prior 48-72 h, and SO2 in prior 24-72 h. These evidences might suggest that the different pollution between Los Angeles and Beijing could change the oxidative burden, and body might relieve this burden through energy metabolism in return.

Duke Scholars

Author Yan Lin Environmental Natural Science