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A prospective study (SCOPE) comparing the cardiometabolic and respiratory effects of air pollution exposure on healthy and pre-diabetic individuals

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Abstract

Air pollution is known to be a major risk factor for cardiopulmonary disease, but this is unclear for cardiometabolic disease (e.g. diabetes). This is of considerable public health importance, given the nationwide epidemic of diabetes, accompanied by severe air pollution, in China. The evidence so far remained inadequate to answer questions of whether individuals with cardiometabolic dysfunctions are susceptible to air pollution and whether air pollution exacerbates diabetes development via certain biological pathways. In this manuscript, we summarize the results and limitations of studies exploring these two topics and elaborate our design of a prospective panel study (SCOPE) as a solution. We assessed and compared the health effect of air pollution among pre-diabetic individuals and matched healthy controls through four repeated clinical visits over 1 year. Comprehensive evaluation was made to both health endpoints and exposure. The primary biomarkers were assessed to reveal the impact on multiple biological pathways, including glycolipid metabolism and insulin resistance, endothelial function, and inflammation. Detailed chemical and size fractional components of particulate matter were measured in this study, along with the application of personal monitors. The work should increase our understanding of how air pollution affects individuals with cardiometabolic dysfunction and the underlying mechanisms.

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Acknowledgements

We are greatly thankful to all the volunteers from our group and PKU hospital who helped to accomplish the study. This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41421064, 21190051, 41121004), and the China Postdoc Science Foundation (154248).

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  1. Contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. BIC-ESAT and SKL-ESPC, College of Environmental Sciences and Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Yanwen Wang, Yiqun Han & Tong Zhu

  2. Peking University Hospital, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Weiju Li & Hongyin Zhang

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  1. Yanwen Wang
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  2. Yiqun Han
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  3. Tong Zhu
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  4. Weiju Li
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  5. Hongyin Zhang
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Correspondence to Tong Zhu.

Electronic supplementary material

Figure S1

Step by step screening strategy.

Figure S2 Description of subjects residential location.

Table S1 Community clustering condition

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Wang, Y., Han, Y., Zhu, T. et al. A prospective study (SCOPE) comparing the cardiometabolic and respiratory effects of air pollution exposure on healthy and pre-diabetic individuals. Sci. China Life Sci. 61, 46–56 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11427-017-9074-2

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