1. Ambient air pollution and homocysteine: Current epidemiological evidence and a call for further research
- Author
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Bo-Yi Yang, Joachim Heinrich, Michael S. Bloom, Hai-Zhan Jiang, Tongxing Shi, Shujun Fan, Tianyu Zhao, Guang-Hui Dong, Xiao-Xuan Liu, and Ya-Na Luo
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Homocysteine ,Air pollution ,010501 environmental sciences ,medicine.disease_cause ,01 natural sciences ,Biochemistry ,03 medical and health sciences ,chemistry.chemical_compound ,0302 clinical medicine ,Environmental health ,Air Pollution ,Epidemiology ,medicine ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Risk factor ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences ,General Environmental Science ,Air Pollutants ,Ambient air pollution ,business.industry ,Gaseous pollutants ,Environmental Exposure ,Ambient air ,Cross-Sectional Studies ,chemistry ,Particulate Matter ,business ,Exposure duration - Abstract
Elevated blood homocysteine (Hcy) is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease. A growing number of studies have evaluated the link between air pollution and blood Hcy levels, but the results are inconsistent. To date, no systematic review of the published studies has been conducted yet. We aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of these studies. We systematically searched three international databases (PubMed, Web of Science, and Embase) and four Chinese databases (Wanfang, CNKI, CBM, and VIP) for peer-reviewed epidemiological studies investigating associations between ambient air pollutants and Hcy levels published before December 2019. We screened literature, extracted data, assessed methodological quality, and evaluated the risk of bias of the included studies. Of 1157 identified articles, 10 were finally included in this systematic review. Most were cross-sectional studies and were performed in developed countries. Particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters less than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) and/or 10 μm (PM10) were investigated in all of the included studies.. Overall, the evidence generally supports a positive association between higher PM concentrations and elevated Hcy levels. However, high heterogeneity in terms of study participants, study design, exposure duration, and particle components and sources, low methodological quality and probable high risk of bias in some studies, and limited literature number precluded us from drawing a robust conclusion. Associations between Hcy and gaseous pollutants were explored in only one or two studies, and the results were inconclusive. Additional, well-designed studies remain required to validate the association between air pollution and Hcy.
- Published
- 2020