Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Subtropical Biodiversity and Biomonitoring, School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.
Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Subtropical Biodiversity and Biomonitoring, School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China; Guangdong Provincial Engineering Technology Research Center for Drug and Food Biological Resources Processing and Comprehensive Utilization, School of Life Sciences, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.
Toxicol In Vitro. 2022 Mar;79:105296. doi: 10.1016/j.tiv.2021.105296. Epub 2021 Dec 10.
Epidemiological studies have shown that cardiovascular diseases caused by PM pollution account for the second death rate in China. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are one important group of persistent organic pollutants absorbed on PM. Though individual PAH is related to vascular disease, the relationship between environmental PAHs exposure and vascular damages is still unclear. To explore the effect of PAHs on blood vessel, human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) are treated with 16 priority-controlled PAHs at various concentrations to study their cytotoxicity and morphological alteration. Results showed that, after 48 h treatment, PAHs mixture generally attenuated the ability of wound healing, transwell migration and tube formation of HUVECs (p < 0.01) except for 1 × PAHs in transwell migration. Moreover, PAHs increased the levels of ROS and 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (p < 0.05), indicating that it exceeded the scavenging ability of superoxide dismutase activity. However, PAHs mixture did not increase apoptosis rate, which may be attribute to the difference of PAH concentration and composition between this study and previous reports. Downstream signaling cascades significantly and generally upregulated the relative expression of proteins in Nrf2/HO-1 and NF-ƙB/TNF-α pathway with the activation of oxidative stress, including HO-, TNF-α and Nrf2. In summary, this study suggests that environmental mixture of 16 priority-controlled PAHs can induce the damages of vascular endothelial cells involved in cellular oxidative stress and inflammation.
流行病学研究表明，由 PM 污染引起的心血管疾病在中国的死亡率中占第二位。多环芳烃（PAHs）是吸附在 PM 上的一类重要的持久性有机污染物。虽然个别 PAH 与血管疾病有关，但环境中 PAHs 暴露与血管损伤之间的关系尚不清楚。为了研究 PAHs 对血管的影响，用 16 种优先控制的 PAHs 以不同浓度处理人脐静脉内皮细胞（HUVECs），以研究其细胞毒性和形态改变。结果表明，经过 48 小时处理后，PAHs 混合物通常会减弱 HUVECs 的伤口愈合、穿膜迁移和管形成能力（p < 0.01），除了在穿膜迁移中 1 × PAHs 外。此外，PAHs 增加了 ROS 和 8-羟基-2'-脱氧鸟苷的水平（p < 0.05），表明其超过了超氧化物歧化酶活性的清除能力。然而，PAHs 混合物并未增加细胞凋亡率，这可能归因于本研究与以往报告中 PAH 浓度和组成的差异。下游信号级联反应显著且普遍上调了 Nrf2/HO-1 和 NF-ƙB/TNF-α 通路中与氧化应激相关的蛋白的相对表达，包括 HO-1、TNF-α 和 Nrf2。总之，本研究表明，环境中 16 种优先控制的 PAHs 混合物可诱导血管内皮细胞损伤，涉及细胞氧化应激和炎症。
