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Organic carbon and acidic ions in PM 2.5 contributed to particle bioreactivity in Chinese megacities during haze episodes

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Abstract

Fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been linked to cardiopulmonary disease and systemic effects in humans. However, few studies have investigated the particle bioreactivity in Chinese megacities during haze episodes. The objective of this study was to determine the contributions of chemical components in PM2.5 to particle bioreactivity in Chinese megacities during haze episodes. PM2.5 samples were collected in 14 megacities across China from 23 December 2013 to 16 January 2014. Average PM2.5 concentrations ranged 88.92~199.67 μg/m3. Organic carbon (OC), elemental carbon (EC), anions, and cations per unit of PM2.5 were linked to cellular bioreactivity (i.e., reactive oxygen species (ROS) as assessed by dichlorodihydrofluorescein diacetate (DCFH) and inflammation as assessed by interleukin (IL)-6 in A549 cells). The contributions of chemicals in PM2.5 to ROS and inflammation were examined by the Pearson correlation coefficient and random forests. These results indicated that OC, Ca2+, SO42−, Cl−, F−, K+, and NO3− contributed to ROS production, whereas OC, Cl−, EC, K+, F−, Na+, and Ca2+ contributed to inflammation. In conclusion, PM2.5-contained OC and acidic ions are important in regulation of oxidative stress and inflammation during haze episodes. Our findings suggest that severe haze PM2.5 events cause deterioration in air quality and may adversely affect human health.

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Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors heartedly thank Ms. Yi-Syuan Lin for technical assistance during this project.

Funding

This study was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan (109-2314-B-038-093-MY3).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Jockey Club School of Public Health and Primary Care, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Kin-Fai Ho & Xinyi Niu

  2. Key Laboratory of Aerosol Chemistry & Physics, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, China

    Kin-Fai Ho & Jun-Ji Cao

  3. School of Respiratory Therapy, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ya-Chun Lee & Hsiao-Chi Chuang

  4. Department of Environmental Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China

    Hongmei Xu

  5. CAS Key Laboratory of Regional Climate-Environment for Temperate East Asia, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Renjian Zhang

  6. SKLLQG, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, China

    Jun-Ji Cao

  7. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Cheng-Yu Tsai

  8. Graduate Institute of Environmental Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Ta-Chih Hsiao

  9. Cell Physiology and Molecular Image Research Center, Wan Fang Hospital, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan

    Hsiao-Chi Chuang

  10. Division of Pulmonary Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Shuang Ho Hospital, Taipei Medical University, New Taipei City, Taiwan

    Hsiao-Chi Chuang

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  1. Kin-Fai Ho
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Contributions

HCC contributed to the completion of interpretation of the data and the manuscript. KFH and HCC contributed substantially to the concept, the design, interpretation of the data, and the completion of the study and the manuscript. YCL contributed to the biochemical analyses. XN, HX, RZ, and JJC contributed to the physical characterization of particles. CYT contributed to the data analysis. TCH contributed to the particles extraction. All authors contributed to the critically revising the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hsiao-Chi Chuang.

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We all declare that manuscript reporting studies do not involve any human participants, human data, or human tissue. So it is not applicable.

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Our manuscript does not contain data from any individual person, so it is “not applicable.”

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Responsible editor: Lotfi Aleya

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Ho, F., Lee, YC., Niu, X. et al. Organic carbon and acidic ions in PM 2.5 contributed to particle bioreactivity in Chinese megacities during haze episodes . Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 11865–11873 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-16552-0

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