Department of Environmental Toxicology, University of California Davis, 95616, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2012 Dec;9(12):4321-32. doi: 10.3390/ijerph9124321.
To facilitate the assessment of adverse effects of very low concentrations of air pollutants on general populations, we planned to establish a reliable biomarker that is also useful in identifying vulnerable populations. For this purpose we monitored several inflammation markers in blood samples from 2 year old Japanese children (N = 30), and found that those children living close to major highways (<50 m) show higher levels of mRNA expression IL-22 in their blood samples than those living further away (+50 m). This tendency was more pronounced among subjects showing positive IgE against egg and milk. We further examined association between IL-22 mRNA expression and PCB residues and found a number of significant positive correlations between each individual PCB congener and IL-22 expression. To identify the most vulnerable population among those children we selected asthma as a typical allergy-related disease, and could show that there are significant differences in the levels of IL-22 mRNA expression between IgE negative non-asthmatic subject and asthmatic children showing positive IgE reaction toward egg or milk, again. These observations support our main conclusion that IL-22 expression is a sensitive biomarker which is useful in identifying sub-populations of children who are especially vulnerable to air pollution.
为了评估极低浓度空气污染物对一般人群的不良影响，我们计划建立一个可靠的生物标志物，该标志物也可用于识别易感人群。为此，我们监测了来自 2 岁日本儿童（N=30）的血液样本中的几种炎症标志物，结果发现，那些居住在主要公路附近（<50 米）的儿童血液样本中 IL-22 的 mRNA 表达水平高于居住在更远的儿童（+50 米）。在对鸡蛋和牛奶呈阳性 IgE 的受试者中，这种趋势更为明显。我们进一步研究了 IL-22 mRNA 表达与 PCB 残留之间的关系，发现每个 PCB 同系物与 IL-22 表达之间存在许多显著的正相关关系。为了在这些儿童中确定最易感的人群，我们选择哮喘作为一种典型的过敏相关疾病，并表明 IgE 阴性非哮喘患者和对鸡蛋或牛奶呈阳性 IgE 反应的哮喘儿童之间的 IL-22 mRNA 表达水平存在显著差异。这些观察结果支持我们的主要结论，即 IL-22 表达是一种敏感的生物标志物，可用于识别特别易受空气污染影响的儿童亚群。
