Urban Pollution Affects Cardiac Function: Initial Results in the Healthy Rat

[The Straight Story]

Urban Pollution Affects Cardiac Function: Initial Results in the Healthy Rat

ScienceDaily (Mar. 17, 2010) — In the healthy rat, prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) under conditions that mimic urban pollution leads to changes to cardiac morphology and function. Compensatory mechanisms develop in these animals to sustain normal cardiac activity, but they become more vulnerable to heart disease.

These results, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine by CNRS and INSERM researchers, thus provide cellular proof in the rat of a direct effect of urban pollution on cardiac function. Studies are ongoing to verify these findings in humans.

Epidemiological studies have linked atmospheric carbon monoxide (CO) pollution, such as that seen in cities, to adverse cardiovascular outcomes and an increased cardiac mortality risk, notably in subjects weakened by an underlying condition. However, in healthy subjects, the effects of CO are poorly understood and the cellular mechanisms little studied.

CNRS researchers in Laboratoire UMR-637 (INSERM/Université Montpellier 1 & 2), working in collaboration with researchers from Université d'Avignon, exposed healthy rats for four weeks to pure air or to air enriched in CO (1) at a level reproducing the conditions of urban pollution. The aim of this study was to assess the effects of chronic CO pollution on cardiac function in a healthy experimental model, both in vivo, using echocardiography and electrocardiograms (ECG), and in vitro by measuring different parameters in cardiomyocytes (cardiac cells).

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100317000025.htm