Department of Environmental Medicine, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA.
Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Rochester, NY, USA.
J Immunotoxicol. 2021 Dec;18(1):105-117. doi: 10.1080/1547691X.2021.1965677.
The prevalence of unconventional oil and gas (UOG) operations raises concerns regarding the potential for adverse health outcomes following exposure to water tainted by mixtures of UOG associated chemicals. The potential effects that exposure to complex chemical mixtures has on the immune system have yet to be fully evaluated. In this study, effects on the immune system of adult mice exposed to a mixture of 23 chemicals that have been associated with water near active UOG operations were investigated. Female and male mice were exposed to the mixture their drinking water for at least 8 weeks. At the end of the exposure, cellularity of primary and secondary immune organs, as well as an immune system function, were assessed using three different models of disease, i.e. house dust mite (HDM)-induced allergic airway disease, influenza A virus infection, and experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The results indicated exposures resulted in different impacts on T-cell populations in each disease model. Furthermore, the consequences of exposure differed between female and male mice. Notably, exposure to the chemical mixture significantly increased EAE disease severity in females, but not in male, mice. These findings indicated that direct exposure to this mixture leads to multiple alterations in T-cell subsets and that these alterations differ between sexes. This suggested to us that direct exposure to UOG-associated chemicals may alter the adult immune system, leading to dysregulation in immune cellularity and function.
非常规油气 (UOG) 作业的普遍存在引发了人们对接触受 UOG 相关化学物质污染的水后可能产生不良健康后果的担忧。接触复杂化学混合物对免疫系统的潜在影响尚未得到充分评估。在这项研究中，研究了暴露于与活跃的 UOG 作业附近的水有关的 23 种化学混合物对成年小鼠免疫系统的影响。雌性和雄性小鼠通过饮用受混合物污染的水至少 8 周来进行暴露。在暴露结束时，使用三种不同的疾病模型评估了初级和次级免疫器官的细胞数量以及免疫系统功能，即屋尘螨 (HDM)-诱导的过敏性气道疾病、甲型流感病毒感染和实验性自身免疫性脑脊髓炎 (EAE)。结果表明，暴露导致每个疾病模型中的 T 细胞群体受到不同的影响。此外，暴露的后果在雌性和雄性小鼠之间存在差异。值得注意的是，暴露于化学混合物显著增加了雌性小鼠而非雄性小鼠的 EAE 疾病严重程度。这些发现表明，直接暴露于该混合物会导致 T 细胞亚群发生多种改变，并且这些改变在性别之间存在差异。这向我们表明，直接接触 UOG 相关化学物质可能会改变成年免疫系统，导致免疫细胞数量和功能失调。
