Impact of breathing diesel exhaust fumes may be more severe for women, study finds

In a study presented at the European Respiratory Society International Congress, researchers found sex-related differences in the impact of diesel exhaust in blood plasma.

Hemshekhar Mahadevappa, MSc, PhD, research associate at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, and colleagues conducted a randomized, crossover, human-controlled exposure study of 10 healthy nonsmoking adults (50% women) who were exposed to filtered air or diesel exhaust at 20 µg fine particulate matter (PM_2.5)/m³, 50 µg PM_2.5/m³ and 150 µg PM_2.5/m³ for 4 hours. Researchers included a washout period of 4 weeks between each exposure. Researchers then collected plasma 24 hours after each exposure to evaluate the impact of diesel exhaust on men and women, as well as analyze whether sex was an effect modifier of diesel exhaust.

The researchers reported an abundance of 52 proteins among men and 153 proteins among women that were significantly altered in plasma following all exposures to diesel exhaust compared with exposure to filtered air, according to the abstract.

Sex was a significant effect modifier for 91 proteins related to diesel exhaust, especially within functional groups of inflammation, oxidative stress, hemostasis, cardiovascular disease and host defense peptides, according to the abstract.

Some effects observed for sex were dependent upon concentration. The strongest effect was observed with diesel exhaust exposure of 150 µg PM_2.5/m³, according to the results.

The researchers concluded that these results highlight sex as an important modifier of host response to air pollution caused by diesel exhaust and add to the current knowledge base of pollution-driven biological effects in humans.