ASMS 2009
Environmental impact on perinatal lung metabolism
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Oliver Fiehn, Jesse Joad and Kent Pinkerton
This project aims to understand the metabolic consequences of exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) on lung development and function.
First, we have compared the effects of ETS at very high concentrations of 30 and 1 mg/m³ on metabolic perturbations in adult male rats. For both perfused lung tissues and blood plasma, effects were eminent at roughly the same order of magnitude, and results were presented at the ATS meeting 2006 (San Diego). This data provided the basis to continue research with standard conditions of 1 mg/m3 ETS for 6 h/day for a variety of subsequent studies. Metabolic effects were quantified in a longitudinal manner to distinguish acute from chronic effects. We could prove that the most dramatic effects were found for ascorbate, lipid and amino acid metabolism. Results were discussed at the ATS meeting 2007 in San Francisco. Two further studies in 2007 quantified metabolic effects in lungs of timed pregnant rats, fetuses and newborn rats at age 1, 3 and 8 weeks. The project will continue to establish routes of primary metabolization and transport of organic pollutants from the pregnant dams' lungs to blood plasma, specifically for volatile components. By linking metabolic aberrations in fetal, newborn and young adult rat lungs we will establish links between the type and amount of transported ETS components and the magnitude and timing of metabolic aberrations and dysfunction during fetal lung development.
This project is funded by the NIH/NIEHS, project R01 ES 13932
Last modified 2007-09-09 10:29 AM
