Abstract
Background
Lipid disorder has been demonstrated as important biomarkers for many chronic diseases, while PM2.5 is becoming an emerging risk factor to altered lipid profiles. However, few studies have paid attention to the changes of comprehensive lipid indices caused by PM2.5-bound polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) exposure, especially among older adults population. We aimed to investigate whether PM2.5-bound PAHs were associated with the changes of lipid profiles, and whether this association could differ among multiple categories of PAHs.
Methods
A longitudinal study including 98 adults was conducted in Beijing, China, from November 2016 to January 2018. Multiple categories of PAHs were classified into low-molecular-weight PAHs (LMW-PAHs), high-molecular-weight PAHs (HMW-PAHs), carcinogenic PAHs (c-PAHs) and non-carcinogenic PAHs (nc-PAHs) based on their molecular weight and carcinogenicity potential. Linear mixed-effects models were used to explore the association between multiple categories of PAHs and lipid profiles, including single-pollutant model, two-pollutant model, and constituent-residual model.
Results
We found that high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) levels were significantly decreased by 1.00% (95%CI, -1.98 to -0.30%) to 9.52% (95%CI, -13.93 to -4.88%) in association with a 10 ng/m3 increase in moving averages of the multiple categories of PAHs. We also found significant increases in total cholesterol (TG), castelli risk indexes I and II (CRI-I and II), and atherogenic coefficient (AC) by 4.08% (95% CI, 0.10 to 7.25%) to 40.49% (95% CI, 13.88 to 73.33%) were associated with a 10 ng/m3 increase of multiple categories of PAHs.
Conclusion
Multiple categories of PAHs were significantly associated with altered lipid profiles. Although some PAHs are not carcinogenic, they may cause dyslipidemia, which in turn affects chronic diseases.