Outdoor air pollution, exhaled 8-isoprostane and current asthma in adults: the EGEA study

Abstract

Associations between outdoor air pollution and asthma in adults are still scarce, and the underlying biological mechanisms are poorly understood. Our aim was to study the associations between 1) long-term exposure to outdoor air pollution and current asthma, 2) exhaled 8-isoprostane (8-iso; a biomarker related to oxidative stress) and current asthma, and 3) outdoor air pollution and exhaled 8-iso.

Cross-sectional analyses were conducted in 608 adults (39% with current asthma) from the first follow-up of the French case–control and family study on asthma (EGEA; the Epidemiological study of the Genetic and Environmental factors of Asthma). Data on nitrogen dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter with a diameter ≤10 and ≤2.5 µm (PM₁₀ and PM_2.5), road traffic, and ozone (O₃) were from ESCAPE (European Study of Cohorts for Air Pollution Effects) and IFEN (French Institute for the Environment) assessments. Models took account of city and familial dependence.

The risk of current asthma increased with traffic intensity (adjusted (a)OR 1.09 (95% CI 1.00–1.18) per 5000 vehicles per day), with O₃ exposure (aOR 2.04 (95% CI 1.27–3.29) per 10 µg·m⁻³) and with exhaled 8-iso concentration (aOR 1.50 (95% CI 1.06–2.12) per 1 pg·mL⁻¹). Among participants without asthma, exhaled 8-iso concentration increased with PM_2.5 exposure (adjusted (a)β 0.23 (95% CI 0.005–0.46) per 5 µg·m⁻³), and decreased with O₃ and O_3-summer exposures (aβ −0.20 (95% CI −0.39– −0.01) and aβ −0.52 (95% CI −0.77– −0.26) per 10 µg·m⁻³, respectively).

Our results add new insights into a potential role of oxidative stress in the associations between outdoor air pollution and asthma in adults.