Clues to the Impact of Ultrafine Dust Inhalation on the Immune System
Published in the May Issue of Environmental Science Journal 'Environment International'
Dong-A University (President Lee Haewoo) announced on April 28 that Professor Wanseop Cho from the Department of Pharmaceutical Life Sciences and Ph.D. candidate Kim Gyuri have, for the first time in the world, identified the pathway and mechanism by which ultrafine dust exits the lungs after inhalation.
The research team led by Professor Wanseop Cho, supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea, achieved direct confirmation of the "phenomenon and mechanism of ultrafine dust moving to secondary organs" in their study.
The paper presenting this research will be published in the May issue of 'Environment International' (IF 10.3), a journal ranked in the top 6% in the field of environmental science. The findings are expected to significantly advance research on the inhalation toxicity of ultrafine dust and its effects on the systemic immune system.
Humans are exposed to ultrafine dust every day. In particular, the concentration of ultrafine dust in spring is much higher than in other seasons, and because it coincides with the presence of pollen and yellow dust, extra caution is required for respiratory health during this period.
It has long been known that inhalation of ultrafine dust can cause lung inflammation and progress to chronic respiratory diseases. However, it has been difficult to experimentally verify the direct movement of ultrafine dust to secondary organs (such as the cardiovascular system, nervous system, and immune system), making it challenging to clarify its direct association with diseases in these organs.
In this study, Professor Wanseop Cho's team confirmed that when ultrafine dust is deposited in the lungs, its movement to secondary organs is limited if it is in an aggregated or engulfed state within alveolar macrophages. Only when it exists in a dispersed form can it move more easily into the lymphatic and systemic circulatory systems.
They also found that ultrafine dust that moves through lymphatic circulation accumulates in lung-associated lymph nodes, while dust that enters systemic circulation passes freely through the liver without accumulating in the reticuloendothelial system, and is instead filtered and accumulated in the "open circulation system" of the spleen.
Professor Wanseop Cho explained, "In inhalation toxicity studies using mice, we observed significant accumulation of ultrafine dust in the spleen on day 30 after a single exposure. The concentration persisted until the end of the experiment on day 90, and we expect that repeated inhalation exposure will lead to a much greater accumulation of ultrafine dust in the spleen. The accumulation occurs in the 'red pulp' region, which contains the open circulation system, and we anticipate this will have a functional impact on the spleen, a key organ of the immune system. Related research is ongoing."
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