Gene expression changes in the olfactory bulb of mice induced by exposure to diesel exhaust are dependent on animal rearing environment.

There is an emerging concern that particulate air pollution increases the risk of cranial nerve disease onset. Small nanoparticles, mainly derived from diesel exhaust particles reach the olfactory bulb by their nasal depositions. It has been reported that diesel exhaust inhalation causes inflammation of the olfactory bulb and other brain regions. However, these toxicological studies have not evaluated animal rearing environment. We hypothesized that rearing environment can change mice phenotypes and thus might alter toxicological study results. In this study, we exposed mice to diesel exhaust inhalation at 90 µg/m(3), 8 hours/day, for 28 consecutive days after rearing in a standard cage or environmental enrichment conditions. Microarray analysis found that expression levels of 112 genes were changed by diesel exhaust inhalation. Functional analysis using Gene Ontology revealed that the dysregulated genes were involved in inflammation and immune response. This result was supported by pathway analysis. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis confirmed 10 genes. Interestingly, background gene expression of the olfactory bulb of mice reared in a standard cage environment was changed by diesel exhaust inhalation, whereas there was no significant effect of diesel exhaust exposure on gene expression levels of mice reared with environmental enrichment. The results indicate for the first time that the effect of diesel exhaust exposure on gene expression of the olfactory bulb was influenced by rearing environment. Rearing environment, such as environmental enrichment, may be an important contributive factor to causation in evaluating still undefined toxic environmental substances such as diesel exhaust.