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Environmental justice research driven by academics and policymakers often overlooks the valuable insights and leadership of the communities most impacted by environmental hazards. When institution‐led research approaches are employed, inadequate community ownership and limited institutional accountability hinder the effectiveness of environmental public health interventions. In contrast, a community‐owned and ‐managed approach to environmental justice research can guide community members in developing evidence‐based interventions. This paper outlines a community‐led environmental health assessment survey (sample = 100) and resulting community actions over 6 years (2017–2023) in a Northern California farmworker community with a perceived high prevalence of cancer and exposure to environmental hazards in households, neighborhoods, and job sites. Local resident experts in Knights Landing, CA, documented community risk factors and exposures in collaboration with interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate student‐researchers. The survey instrument focused on environmental hazards identified by local resident experts including vehicular and agricultural pollution, occupational pesticide contact, and sun exposure. Survey findings highlighted the need for targeted interventions to reduce environmental health risks, such as academic outreach programs, county investments in public services, and community‐led mutual aid initiatives. Despite academic reservations about our non‐random sampling method and data collection by local resident experts, our project sparked substantial actions and investments with minimal personnel and financial resources. Local leaders working with student‐researchers developed more effective environmental public health interventions through a community‐owned and ‐managed approach that went beyond the efforts of local regulatory and research institutions. Plain Language Summary: Agricultural communities in California experience environmental injustice related to toxic exposures in environmental, household, and occupational settings. Environmental justice movements seek to ensure a clean and healthy environment for all communities by mitigating these toxic exposures and amplifying community voices to remove social, economic, and political barriers to healthy environments. This research project started in 2016 when Knights Landing residents revealed their suspicions that environmental carcinogens were potentially causing a high prevalence of cancer in their neighborhood. The community leaders and university researchers partnered to conduct a community survey. The survey results were used by community leaders to establish the following action priorities: household pesticide exposure, addictive substance misuse, access to cancer screening, occupational safety, housing quality, and neighborhood isolation from health services. Feasible and prompt actions were implemented from 2017 to 2023 within the limited resources of this unincorporated community. Communities can initiate a swift, customized, representative environmental health assessment to serve as a starting point when seeking institutional support, funding, or larger research initiatives. Our approach may serve as a model for environmental justice researchers striving to promptly reduce environmental health risks in marginalized communities. Key Points: Agricultural community residents led a low‐budget environmental health survey to develop evidence‐based public health interventionsCommunities can use a carcinogen exposure survey to prioritize and develop actions that reduce cancer burdens in their neighborhoodWhen residents' priorities drive research directions, community solutions can be promptly launched within limited resource communities [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to air pollution has been linked to pulmonary diseases. Naphthalene (NA), an abundant polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in tobacco smoke and urban air, is a model toxicant for air pollution effects in the lung. Repeated exposures to NA in male mice result in tolerance, defined as the emergence of a resistant cell phenotype after prior exposure. Tolerance has not been studied in females. Females have sex differences in airway epithelial responses and in the prevalence of certain airway diseases. Male and female mice were exposed to a tolerance-inducing regimen of NA, and lungs were examined by airway level to characterize the cellular changes associated with repeated NA exposure and to assess the expression of genes and proteins involved in NA bioactivation and detoxification. The airway epithelium in treated males resembled that of controls. Females in the tolerant state were characterized by dense populations of ciliated cells in midlevel, distal, and bifurcating airways and a lower abundance of Clara cells at all airway levels. Cytotoxicity following a secondary challenge dose was also greater in females than males. Furthermore, females had decreased gene/protein expression of CYP2F2, a P-450 that metabolizes NA to a toxic epoxide, and glutamate-cysteine ligase, the rate-limiting enzyme in glutathione synthesis, than NA-tolerant males at all airway levels examined. We conclude that, while females develop tolerance, sex differences exist in the tolerant state by airway level, and females remain more susceptible than males to repeated exposures to NA.

One of the presumed roles of intracellular glutathione (GSH) is the protection of cells from injury by reactive intermediates produced by the metabolism of xenobiotics. To establish whether GSH depletion is a critical step in the initiation of events that lead to cytotoxicity by P450-activated cytotoxicants, naphthalene, a well-defined Clara cell cytotoxicant, was administered to mice (200 mg/kg) by intraperitoneal injection. Shortly after injection (1, 2, and 3 h), intracellular GSH content was assessed by high performance liquid chromatography or quantitative epifluorescent imaging microscopy and compared with the degree of cytotoxicity as assessed by high resolution histopathology. In highly susceptible airways (distal bronchioles), GSH decreased by 50% in 1 h. Cytoplasmic vacuolization was not visible until 2 h, when GSH had decreased by an additional 50%. By 3 h, cytoplasmic blebbing was extensive. In minimally susceptible airways (lobar and proximal bronchi), GSH depletion varied widely within the population; a small proportion of the cells lost greater than 50% of their GSH by 2 h and a significant percentage of the cells retained most of their GSH throughout the entire 3 h. Cytoplasmic vacuolization was apparent in some of the cells at 2 h but not visible in any cells at 3 h. We conclude that (1) loss of intracellular GSH is an early event that precedes initial signs of cellular damage in Clara cell cytotoxicity; (2) this pattern of loss in relation to early injury is found both in highly susceptible and minimally susceptible airway sites; (3) there is wide cell-to-cell heterogeneity in the response; (4) the heterogeneity in the response profile varies between populations in highly susceptible and minimally susceptible sites; and (5) once the intracellular GSH concentration within the entire cell population drops below a certain threshold, the initial phase of injury becomes irreversible.

To establish whether allergic asthma could be induced experimentally in a nonhuman primate using a common human allergen, three female rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) were sensitized with house dust mite (Dermatophagoides farinae) allergen (HDMA) by subcutaneous injection, followed by four intranasal sensitizations, and exposure to allergen aerosol 3 hours per day, 3 days per week for up to 13 weeks. Before aerosol challenge, all three monkeys skin-tested positive for HDMA. During aerosol challenge with HDMA, sensitized monkeys exhibited cough and rapid shallow breathing and increased airway resistance, which was reversed by albuterol aerosol treatment. Compared to nonsensitized monkeys, there was a fourfold reduction in the dose of histamine aerosol necessary to produce a 150% increase in airway resistance in sensitized monkeys. After aerosol challenge, serum levels of histamine were elevated in sensitized monkeys. Sensitized monkeys exhibited increased levels of HDMA-specific IgE in serum, numbers of eosinophils and exfoliated cells within lavage, and elevated CD25 expression on circulating CD4(+) lymphocytes. Intrapulmonary bronchi of sensitized monkeys had focal mucus cell hyperplasia, interstitial infiltrates of eosinophils, and thickening of the basement membrane zone. We conclude that a model of allergic asthma can be induced in rhesus monkeys using a protocol consisting of subcutaneous injection, intranasal instillation, and aerosol challenge with HDMA.

The airway basement membrane zone is a region specialized for the attachment of the epithelium with the matrix. The epithelium is attached to the lamina densa, which, in turn, is connected to types I and III collagen of the lamina reticularis with anchoring fibrils. The purpose of this study was to define the three-dimensional organization of the structural proteins of the lamina reticularis in the rat trachea. We approached this problem by using whole mounts to look down on the flat surface of the basement-membrane zone rather than a cross section of its thin profile. Fluorescent microscopy with long working distance water immersion objectives and scanning electron microscopy revealed that the structural proteins are arranged as a mat of large fibers oriented along the longitudinal axis of the airway. Smaller fibers are crosslinked with the larger fibers to complete this structure. Other small fibers are oriented around the large fibers and an amorphous material covers individual fibers. The large fibers oriented along the longitudinal axis of the airway are consistent with prior descriptions of fibers composed of collagen III with some collagen I and V; small fibers encircling the large fibers may be collagen VI. The crosslinking fibers are made up of elastin and probably elastin-associated microfibrils. The amorphous proteins covering the fibrous framework may contain proteoglycans and other nonstructural proteins reported to be in the lamina reticularis. The present studies demonstrate that the structural proteins of the lamina reticularis in the rat trachea are arranged as fibers in a highly organized manner.

Naphthalene causes severe dose- and site-selective injury to mouse nonciliated bronchiolar (Clara) epithelial cells. Toxicity is characterized by exfoliation of injured Clara cells into the airway lumen 24 h after exposure. The purpose of this study was to define the temporal pattern of intracellular changes immediately following naphthalene treatment, with the goal of identifying critical early events involved in cytotoxicity. Mice were injected with naphthalene or carrier and were killed 1, 2, 3, and 6 h after treatment (PT). Loss of membrane integrity was assessed by ethidium homodimer-1 permeability and confocal microscopy. Cell morphology and ultrastructure were evaluated using high-resolution light and electron microscopy. Permeable cells were found only in terminal bronchioles and increased in abundance with time PT. At 2 and 3 h PT, when most Clara cells had early signs of injury, few permeable cells were detected. Many Clara cells had apical membrane blebs that contained abundant, swollen, smooth endoplasmic reticulum (SER) and few other organelles. By 6 h PT many Clara cells were membrane-permeable. However, many permeable Clara cells lacked apical blebs and SER was less abundant in these cells. Cytoplasmic blebbing may be a mechanism to protect the cell by isolating and removing damaged SER. We conclude that the early stages of injury include SER swelling and bleb formation which precede increases in cell membrane permeability after acute naphthalene injury to bronchiolar Clara cells in vivo.

Clara cells are primary targets for metabolically activated pulmonary toxicants because they contain an abundance of the cytochrome P450 monooxygenases required for generation of toxic metabolites. The factors that regulate bronchiolar regeneration after Clara cell injury are not known. Previous studies of naphthalene-induced bronchiolar injury and repair in the mouse have shown that epithelial cell proliferation is maximal 1 to 2 days after injury and complete 4 days after injury. Proliferation is followed by epithelial re-differentiation (4 to 14 days). In this study, mice were treated with the environmental pollutant naphthalene to induce massive Clara cell injury. The distribution and abundance of three growth-regulatory peptides (epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), epidermal growth factor (EGF), and transforming growth factor (TGF)-alpha) was determined immunochemically during repair of this acute bronchiolar injury. EGFR and its ligands were detected at low levels in cells throughout the lung including peribronchiolar interstitial cells, blood vessels, and conducting airway epithelium. Immediately after naphthalene injury (1 to 2 days), EGFR, EGF, and TGF-alpha are expressed in increased abundance in squamous epithelial cells of the injury target zone, distal bronchioles. These immunopositive squamous cells are detected in clumps in the distal bronchioles at the time when cell proliferation is maximal. EGFR protein expression is decreased slightly 4 to 7 days after injury and continues to decrease below control levels of abundance 14 to 21 days after injury. This down-regulation of EGFR is not reflected in a corresponding decrease in EGF and TGF-alpha protein expression, indicating that control of cell proliferation is regulated at the receptor level. Co-localization of EGFR and bromodeoxyuridine-positive proliferating cells in the same bronchiole indicates that EGFR is up-regulated within the proliferative microenvironment as well as in specific proliferating cells within the injury target zone. The coincident localization within terminal bronchioles of EGFR, EGF, and TGF-alpha to groups of squamous epithelial cells 2 days after naphthalene injury suggests that these peptides are important in up-regulating cell proliferation after Clara cell injury in the mouse.

The lung is composed of a complex assemblage of more than 40 different cell types. Therefore, investigative techniques that rely on samples derived from whole lung homogenates, whether for biochemical measurements of metabolism or the analysis of gene expression, are inherently insensitive to cell type or region-specific differences. Microdissection has previously been successful for defining region-specific metabolic activity in the lung. Tissues obtained by this technique exhibit good viability and permit reproducible enzyme activity measurements. In this paper, a technique for isolating RNA from lung subcompartments obtained by microdissection is described. The method is straight forward and results in high quality RNA that can be used to quantify specific mRNAs in microscopically selected lung subcompartments by complementary DNA or RNA hybridization techniques. This technique provides a significant increase in sensitivity over techniques based on whole lung homogenates because RNA contributed by relevant lung subcompartments is enriched. The high sensitivity of the method makes it feasible to compare differences in mRNA expression 1) within different regions of the lung in the same animal, 2) in the same region in different animals and between different species, and 3) between susceptible and nonsusceptible sites in conditions of focal lung injury.