Background

Studies investigating the relationship between exposure to air pollution and brain development using magnetic resonance images are emerging. However, most studies have focused only on prenatal exposures, and have included a limited selection of pollutants. Here, we aim to expand the current knowledge by studying pregnancy and childhood exposure to a wide selection of pollutants, and brain morphology in preadolescents.

Methods

We used data from 3,133 preadolescents from a birth cohort from Rotterdam, the Netherlands (enrollment: 2002-2006). Concentrations of nitrogen oxides, coarse, fine, and ultrafine particles, and composition of fine particles were estimated for participant’s home addresses in pregnancy and childhood, using land use regression models. Structural brain images were obtained at age 9-12 years. We assessed the relationships of air pollution exposure, with brain volumes, and surface-based morphometric data, adjusting for socioeconomic and life-style characteristics, using single as well as multi-pollutant approach.

Results

No associations were observed between air pollution exposures and global volumes of total brain, and cortical and subcortical grey matter. However, we found associations between higher pregnancy and childhood air pollution exposures with smaller corpus callosum, smaller hippocampus, larger amygdala, smaller nucleus accumbens, and larger cerebellum (e.g. -69.2mm3 hippocampal volume [95%CI -129.1 to -9.3] per 1ng/m3 increase in pregnancy exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons). Higher pregnancy exposure to air pollution was associated with smaller cortical thickness while higher childhood exposure was associated with predominantly larger cortical surface area.

Conclusion

Higher pregnancy or childhood exposure to several air pollutants was associated with altered volume of several brain structures, as well as with cortical thickness and surface area. Associations showed some similarity to delayed maturation and effects of early-life stress.

中文翻译：

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怀孕和儿童时期的空气污染暴露和青春期前的大脑形态

背景

使用磁共振图像调查空气污染暴露与大脑发育之间关系的研究正在兴起。然而，大多数研究只关注产前暴露，并包括有限的污染物选择。在这里，我们的目标是通过研究怀孕和儿童时期接触多种污染物以及青春期前的大脑形态来扩展当前的知识。

方法

我们使用了来自荷兰鹿特丹出生队列的 3,133 名青春期前儿童的数据（注册时间：2002-2006）。使用土地利用回归模型估计了参与者在怀孕和儿童时期的家庭住址的氮氧化物、粗颗粒、细颗粒和超细颗粒的浓度以及细颗粒的组成。大脑结构图像是在 9-12 岁时获得的。我们评估了空气污染暴露与脑容量和基于表面的形态测量数据的关系，调整了社会经济和生活方式特征，使用单一和多污染物方法。

结果

没有观察到空气污染暴露与大脑总体积以及皮质和皮质下灰质之间的关联。然而，我们发现较高的妊娠期和儿童期空气污染暴露与较小的胼胝体、较小的海马、较大的杏仁核、较小的伏隔核和较大的小脑（例如 -69.2mm3 海马体积 [95%CI -129.1 至 -9.3] 每 1ng /m3 增加怀孕暴露于多环芳烃）。较高的怀孕暴露于空气污染与较小的皮质厚度相关，而较高的儿童暴露与主要较大的皮质表面积相关。

结论

较高的妊娠期或儿童期暴露于多种空气污染物与几种大脑结构的体积变化以及皮质厚度和表面积有关。关联显示出与延迟成熟和早期生活压力的影响有一些相似之处。