Trans Psych: Air quality affects early brain development.

, June 19, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --- In a recent study, researchers at the University of California, Davis, found a link between traffic-related air pollution and an increased risk of neurodevelopmental disordersTheir study, based on rodent models, confirmed previous epidemiological evidence that this association existedstudy's senior author, University of California, Davis, toxicologist Pamela Lein, said that although air pollution has long been found to affect people's lung and cardiovascular health, it was only recently that scientists turned their attention to its effects on the brainresearchers have previously revealed a link between traffic conditions and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, but there is little preclinical data based on real-time exposure to traffic-related air pollution(Photo:Lein worked with Anthony Wexler, an atmospheric scientist at the University of California, Davis, and Kelley Patten, a ph.Dstudent in pharmacology and toxicology at the University of California, Davis, to develop a novel way to study the effects of traffic-related air pollution in real timeresearchers compared the brains of rodent cubs exposed to traffic-related air pollution to the brains of cubs exposed to filtered airThey found abnormal growth and neurological inflammation in the brains of animals exposed to air pollutionThis suggests that exposure to air pollution during critical developmental periods may increase the risk of changes in brain development associated with neurodevelopmental disordersin another study, Patten extended the exposure by 14 months to study the long-term effects of traffic-related air pollution, the researchers are interested in what components of traffic-related air pollution are driving neurodevelopmental outcomes(Bio Valley Bioon.com)source:Air quality impacts e brainoriginal source:Kelley TPatten et al,Effects of life early exposure to traffic-air air pollution on brain brain in the juvenile sprague-Dawley rats,Translational Prinsi
(2020)DOI: 10.1038/s41398-020-0845-3
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