The Role of Polygenic Susceptibility on Air Pollution-Associated Asthma between German and Japanese Elderly Women

Sara Kress, Akinori Hara, Claudia Wigmann, Takehiro Sato, Keita Suzuki, Kim-Oanh Pham, Qi Zhao, Ashtyn Areal, Atsushi Tajima, Holger Schwender, Hiroyuki Nakamura and Tamara Schikowski ()
Additional contact information
Sara Kress: IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Auf’m Hennekamp 50, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Akinori Hara: Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Graduate School of Advanced Preventive Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Ishikawa, Japan
Claudia Wigmann: IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Auf’m Hennekamp 50, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Takehiro Sato: Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, Graduate School of Advanced Preventive Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Ishikawa, Japan
Keita Suzuki: Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Graduate School of Advanced Preventive Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Ishikawa, Japan
Kim-Oanh Pham: Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Graduate School of Advanced Preventive Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Ishikawa, Japan
Qi Zhao: IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Auf’m Hennekamp 50, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Ashtyn Areal: IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Auf’m Hennekamp 50, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Atsushi Tajima: Department of Bioinformatics and Genomics, Graduate School of Advanced Preventive Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Ishikawa, Japan
Holger Schwender: Mathematical Institute, Heinrich Heine University, Universitätsstraße 1, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany
Hiroyuki Nakamura: Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Graduate School of Advanced Preventive Medical Sciences, Kanazawa University, 13-1 Takaramachi, Kanazawa 920-8640, Ishikawa, Japan
Tamara Schikowski: IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, Auf’m Hennekamp 50, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-11

Abstract: Polygenic susceptibility likely influences individual responses to air pollutants and the risk of asthma. We compared the role of polygenic susceptibility on air pollution-associated asthma between German and Japanese women. We investigated women that were enrolled in the German SALIA cohort (n = 771, mean age = 73 years) and the Japanese Shika cohort (n = 847, mean age = 67 years) with known asthma status. Adjusted logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between (1) particulate matter with a median aerodynamic diameter ≤ 2.5μm (PM 2.5 ) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), (2) polygenic risk scores (PRS), and (3) gene-environment interactions (G × E) with asthma. We found an increased risk of asthma in Japanese women after exposure to low pollutant levels (PM 2.5 : median = 12.7µg/m 3 , p -value < 0.001, NO 2 : median = 8.5µg/m 3 , p -value < 0.001) and in German women protective polygenic effects ( p -value = 0.008). While we found no significant G × E effects, the direction in both groups was that the PRS increased the effect of PM 2.5 and decreased the effect of NO 2 on asthma. Our study confirms that exposure to low air pollution levels increases the risk of asthma in Japanese women and indicates polygenic effects in German women; however, there was no evidence of G × E effects. Future genome-wide G × E studies should further explore the role of ethnic-specific polygenic susceptibility to asthma.

Keywords: asthma; air pollution; gene-environment interaction; elderly; ethnicity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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