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Air Pollution Stress and the Aging Phenotype: The Telomere Connection

Current Environmental Health Reports volume 3, pages 258–269 (2016)Cite this article

Abstract

Aging is a complex physiological phenomenon. The question why some subjects grow old while remaining free from disease whereas others prematurely die remains largely unanswered. We focus here on the role of air pollution in biological aging. Hallmarks of aging can be grouped into three main categories: genomic instability, telomere attrition, and epigenetic alterations leading to altered mitochondrial function and cellular senescence. At birth, the initial telomere length of a person is largely determined by environmental factors. Telomere length shortens with each cell division and exposure to air pollution as well as low residential greens space exposure is associated with shorter telomere length. Recent studies show that the estimated effects of particulate air pollution exposure on the telomere mitochondrial axis of aging may play an important role in chronic health effects of air pollution. The exposome encompasses all exposures over an entire life. As telomeres can be considered as the cellular memories of exposure to oxidative stress and inflammation, telomere maintenance may be a proxy for assessing the “exposome”. If telomeres are causally related to the aging phenotype and environmental air pollution is an important determinant of telomere length, this might provide new avenues for future preventive strategies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was funded by the EU Program “Ideas” (ERC-2012-StG 310898) and by the Flemish Scientific Fund (FWO, G073315N/G.0880.13).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Environmental Sciences, Hasselt University, 3500, Hasselt, Belgium

    Dries S. Martens & Tim S. Nawrot

  2. Department of Public Health & Primary Care, Leuven University, 3000, Leuven, Belgium

    Tim S. Nawrot

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  1. Dries S. Martens
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  2. Tim S. Nawrot
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Correspondence to Tim S. Nawrot.

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Dries S. Martens and Tim S. Nawrot declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Early Life Environmental Health

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Martens, D.S., Nawrot, T.S. Air Pollution Stress and the Aging Phenotype: The Telomere Connection. Curr Envir Health Rpt 3, 258–269 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-016-0098-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40572-016-0098-8

Keywords

  • Air pollution
  • Telomere
  • Aging
  • Exposome