Joint effects of prenatal exposure to indoor air pollution and psychosocial factors on early life inflammation

This study investigates the individual and joint effects of prenatal exposure to indoor air pollution and psychosocial factors on early life inflammation (interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)). We analyzed data from the South African Drakenstein Child Health Study (N = 225). Indoor air pollution and psychosocial factor measurements were taken in the 2nd trimester of pregnancy. Circulating inflammatory markers (IL-1β, Il-6, and TNF-α) were measured in serum in the infants at 6 weeks postnatal. Linear regression models were used to investigate associations between individual exposures and inflammatory markers. To investigate joint effects of environmental and psychosocial factors, Self-Organizing Maps (SOM) were used to create exposure profile clusters. These clusters were added to linear regression models to investigate the associations between exposure profiles and inflammatory markers. All models were adjusted for maternal age, maternal HIV status, and ancestry to control for confounding. Most indoor air pollutants were positively associated with inflammatory markers, particularly benzene and TNF-α in single pollutant models. No consistent patterns were found for psychosocial factors in single-exposure linear regression models. In joint effects analyses, the SOM profile with high indoor air pollution, low SES, and high maternal depressive symptoms were associated with higher inflammation. Indoor air pollutants were consiste...

Source: Environmental Research - April 2, 2024 Category: Environmental Health Authors: Grace M Christensen Michele Marcus Petrus J W Naud é Aneesa Vanker Stephanie M Eick W Michael Caudle Susan Malcolm-Smith Shakira F Suglia Howard H Chang Heather J Zar Dan J Stein Anke H üls Source Type: research