Residential Ambient Air Pollution Exposure and the Development of White Matter Microstructure Throughout Adolescence.

Background: Recent evidence suggests an association of air pollution exposure with brain development, but evidence on white matter microstructure in children is scarce. We investigated how air pollution exposure during pregnancy and childhood impacts longitudinal development of white matter microstructure throughout adolescence.
Methods: Our study population consisted of 4,108 participants of Generation R, a large population-based birth cohort from Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Residential air pollution exposure to 14 air pollutants during pregnancy and childhood was estimated with land-use regression models. Diffusion tensor images were obtained around age 10 and 14, resulting in a total of 5,422 usable scans (n=3,082 for wave 1 and n=2,340 for wave 2; n= 1,314 for participants with data on both waves). We calculated whole-brain fractional anisotropy (FA) and mean diffusivity (MD) and performed single- and multi-pollutant analyses using mixed effects models adjusted for life-style and socioeconomic status variables.
Results: Higher exposure to PM _2.5 during pregnancy, and PM ₁₀ , PM _2.5 , PM _2.5-10 , and NO _X during childhood was associated with a consistently lower whole-brain FA throughout adolescence (e.g. - 0.07×10 ^-2 FA [95%CI -0.12; -0.02] per 1 standard deviation higher PM _2.5 exposure during pregnancy). Higher exposure to silicon (Si) in PM _2.5 and oxidative potential of PM _2.5 during pregnancy, and PM _2.5 during childhood was associated with an initial higher MD followed by a faster decrease in MD throughout adolescence (e.g. - 0.02×10 ^-5 mm ² /s MD [95%CI -0.03; -0.00] per year of age per 1 standard deviation higher Si exposure during pregnancy). Results were comparable when performing the analysis in children with complete data on the outcome for both neuroimaging assessments.
Conclusions: Exposure to several pollutants was associated with a consistently lower whole-brain FA throughout adolescence. The association of few pollutants with whole-brain MD at baseline attenuated throughout adolescence. These findings suggest both persistent and age-limited associations of air pollution exposure with white matter microstructure.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest ☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. ☐ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests:
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)