Traffic-Related Air Pollution, Blood Pressure, and Adaptive Response of Mitochondrial Abundance.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Exposure to black carbon (BC), a tracer of vehicular-traffic pollution, is associated with increased blood pressure (BP). Identifying biological factors that attenuate BC effects on BP can inform prevention. We evaluated the role of mitochondrial abundance, an adaptive mechanism compensating for cellular-redox imbalance, in the BC-BP relationship.

Methods and results

At ≥ 1 visits among 675 older men from the Normative Aging Study (observations=1252), we assessed daily BP and ambient BC levels from a stationary monitor. To determine blood mitochondrial abundance, we used whole blood to analyze mitochondrial-to-nuclear DNA ratio (mtDNA/nDNA) using quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Every standard deviation increase in the 28-day BC moving average was associate

SUBMITTER: Zhong J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4729631 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature