Prenatal exposure to air pollution increases risk of childhood allergic rhinitis and asthma Air Pollution AllergicRhinitis Asthma Pollution Prenatal Rhinitis jacionline koebenhavns_uni UChicago AarhusUni DTUtweet
There is evidence that long-term exposure to air pollution in early life adversely affects children's respiratory health and increases asthma risk in childhood. Additionally, associations have been observed between particulate matter having diameters less than 2.5 and less than 10 µm as well as nitrogen dioxide with respiratory diseases in individuals aged between four and seven years. The mechanisms involved in these associations are, however, still unclear.
The COPSAC2010 cohort study involves a prospective mother-child cohort of 700 children born to women living in Zealand, Denmark, with enrolment beginning in week 24 of pregnancy. During pregnancy, the trial comprised randomized interventions with high-dose vitamin D and fish oil. To measure airway immune mediators, nasal mucosal lining fluid samples were obtained using a synthetic absorptive matrix at four weeks and six years of age. At six months, inflammatory markers in the blood were measured with high-sensitivity immunoassays, which were based on electrochemiluminescence. In addition, DNA methylation and gene expression were measured in the respiratory epithelium at six years.
Nose mucosal immune mediators at age six were not significantly correlated with prenatal air pollution exposure. After multiple testing was taken into account, there were also no conclusive links between postnatal air pollution exposure and immune mediator levels at six. This finding was also consistent when the exposure window was limited to the year before the age of six was sampled.