Exposure to Ambient Air Particles Increases the Risk of Mental Disorder: Findings from a Natural Experiment in Beijing

Zhen Jia, Yongjie Wei, Xiaoqian Li, Lixin Yang, Huijie Liu, Chen Guo, Lulu Zhang, Nannan Li, Shaojuan Guo, Yan Qian and Zhigang Li
Additional contact information
Zhen Jia: Beijing Institutes of Life Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Yongjie Wei: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Xiaoqian Li: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Lixin Yang: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Huijie Liu: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Chen Guo: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Lulu Zhang: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Nannan Li: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Shaojuan Guo: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Yan Qian: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China
Zhigang Li: Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment and Environmental Standards Institute, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100000, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-12

Abstract: Epidemiology studies indicated that air pollution has been associated with adverse neurological effects in human. Moreover, the secretion of glucocorticoid (GC) affects the mood regulation, and the negative feedback of hippocampal glucocorticoid receptors (GR) inhibits the GC secretion. Meanwhile, the over secretion of GC can interfere the immune system and induce neurotoxicity. In the present study, the human test showed that the secretion of the cortisol in plasma was elevated after exposure in heavy air pollution. In the mouse model, we found that breathing the highly polluted air resulted in the negative responses of the mood-related behavioral tests and morphology of hippocampus, as well as the over secretion of GC in plasma, down regulation of GR, and up-regulation of cytokine and chemokine in the hippocampus. When considering the interrelated trends between the hippocampal GR, inflammatory factors, and plasmatic GC, we speculated that PM 2.5 exposure could lead to the increased secretion of GC in plasma by decreasing the expression of GR in hippocampus, which activated the inflammation response, and finally induced neurotoxicity, suggesting that PM 2.5 exposure negatively affects mood regulation. When combined with the results of the human test, it indicated that exposure to ambient air particles increased the risk of mental disorder.

Keywords: PM 2.5; mental disorder; glucocorticoid receptors; glucocorticoid; inflammation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/1/160/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/1/160/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:1:p:160-:d:127795

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().