Mechanistic insights into cardiovascular effects of ultrafine particle exposure: A longitudinal panel study

Background: Ultrafine particle (UFP) has been linked with higher risks of cardiovascular diseases; however, the biological mechanisms remain to be fully elucidated. Objectives: This study aims to investigate the cardiovascular responses to short-term UFP exposure and the biological pathways involved. Methods: A longitudinal panel study was conducted among 32 healthy, non-smoking young adults in Shanghai, China, who were engaged in five rounds of follow-ups between December 2020 and November 2021. Individual exposures were calculated based on the indoor and outdoor real-time measurements. Blood pressure, arterial stiffness, targeted biomarkers, and untargeted proteomics and metabolomics were examined during each follow-up. Linear mixed-effect models were applied to analyze the exposure and health data. The differential proteins and metabolites were used for pathway enrichment analyses. Results: Short-term UFP exposure was associated with significant increases in blood pressure and arterial stiffness. For example, systolic blood pressure increased by 2.10 % (95 % confidence interval: 0.63 %, 3.59 %) corresponding to each interquartile increase in UFP concentrations at lag 0–3 h, while pulse wave velocity increased by 2.26 % (95 % confidence interval: 0.52 %, 4.04 %) at lag 7–12 h. In addition, dozens of molecular biomarkers altered significantly. These effects were generally present within 24 h after UFP exposure, and were robust to the adjustment of co-pollutants. Molecular changes detected in proteomics and metabolomics analyses were mainly involved in systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, endothelial dysfunction, coagulation, and disturbance in lipid transport and metabolism. Discussion: This study provides novel and compelling evidence on the detrimental subclinical cardiovascular effects in response to short-term UFP exposure. The multi-omics profiling further offers holistic insights into the underlying biological pathways.