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Respiratory diseases affect women and men differently, a study says
The effects of inhaling diesel exhaust may be more serious for women than men, according to a new study presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The researchers looked for changes in people's blood caused by exposure to diesel exhaust. In both women and men, they found changes in blood components related to inflammation, infection and cardiovascular disease, but they found more changes in women than in men. The research was conducted by Dr. Hemshekhar Mahadevappa from the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada and was a collaboration between two research groups...
Respiratory diseases affect women and men differently, a study says
The effects of inhaling diesel exhaust may be more serious for women than men, according to a new study presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress in Barcelona, Spain.
The researchers looked for changes in people's blood caused by exposure to diesel exhaust. In both women and men, they found changes in blood components related to inflammation, infection and cardiovascular disease, but they found more changes in women than in men.
The research was conducted by Dr. Hemshekhar Mahadevappa of the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada and was a collaboration between two research groups led by Professor Neeloffer Mookherjee of the University of Manitoba and Professor Chris Carlsten of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
We already know that there are gender differences in lung diseases such as asthma and respiratory infections. Our previous research has shown that inhaling diesel exhaust causes inflammation in the lungs and affects how the body deals with respiratory infections. In this study we wanted to look for effects in the blood and how these differ between women and men.”
Dr. Hemshekhar Mahadevappa, University of Manitoba
Ten volunteers took part in the study, five women and five men, all of whom were healthy non-smokers. Each volunteer spent four hours breathing filtered air and four hours of air containing diesel exhaust at three different concentrations - 20, 50 and 150 micrograms of particulate matter (PM2.5) per cubic meter - with a four-week break between exposures. The European Union's current annual limit for PM2.5 is 25 micrograms per cubic meter, but much higher peaks are common in many cities.
Volunteers donated blood samples 24 hours after each exposure, and researchers conducted detailed examinations of the volunteers' blood plasma. Plasma is the liquid component of blood that carries blood cells and hundreds of proteins and other molecules throughout the body. Using an established analytical technology called liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, the researchers looked for changes in the concentrations of various proteins after exposure to diesel exhaust and compared the changes in women and men.
When comparing the plasma samples, the researchers found concentrations of 90 proteins that differed significantly between female and male volunteers after exposure to diesel exhaust. Among the proteins that differed between women and men were some known to play a role in inflammation, damage repair, blood clotting, cardiovascular disease and the immune system. Some of these differences became more apparent when the volunteers were exposed to higher levels of diesel exhaust.
Professor Mookherjee explained: “These are preliminary results, but they show that exposure to diesel exhaust has different effects in the female body than in the male body, and this may suggest that air pollution is more dangerous for women than men.
"This is important because respiratory diseases such as asthma are known to affect women and men differently, with women more likely to suffer from severe asthma that does not respond to treatments. Therefore, we need to know much more about how women and men respond to air pollution and what this means for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of their respiratory diseases."
The researchers plan to further study the functions of these proteins to better understand their role in the difference between female and male immune responses.
Professor Zorana Andersen of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, is chair of the Environment and Health Committee of the European Respiratory Society and was not involved in the research. She said: "We know that exposure to air pollution, particularly diesel exhaust, is a major risk factor for diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. There is very little we can do as individuals to avoid breathing polluted air, so we need governments to set and enforce limits on air pollutants.
"We also need to understand how and why air pollution contributes to poor health. This study offers some important insights into how the body responds to diesel exhaust and how this may differ between women and men."
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