Diesel Particulates Plus Cholesterol Equals Inflammation

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Tacitus has spoken already about the value of particulate air filters.

FuturePundit: Diesel Particulates Plus Cholesterol Equals Inflammation

2007 July 28 Saturday
Diesel Particulates Plus Cholesterol Equals Inflammation Diesel particulate pollution works synergistically with cholesterol to increase gene expression for genes involved in inflammation.
Got high cholesterol? You might want to stay away from air pollution.
That’s the message of a new UCLA study linking diesel exhaust to atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries, which significantly increases one’s risk for heart attack and stroke. Published in the July 26 edition of the online journal Genome Biology, the findings are the first to explain how fine particles in air pollution conspire with artery-clogging fats to switch on the genes that cause blood vessel inflammation and lead to cardiovascular disease.
“When you add one plus one, it normally totals two,” said principal investigator Dr. André Nel, chief of nanomedicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a researcher at UCLA’s California NanoSystems Institute. “But we found that adding diesel particles to cholesterol fats equals three. Their combination creates a dangerous synergy that wreaks cardiovascular havoc far beyond what’s caused by the diesel or cholesterol alone.”
At the moment a battle is raging in Sacramento about a regulatory change to require construction companies and other operators of off-road diesel equipment to gradually upgrade or retire diesels that emit lots of particulates and other pollutants. The emissions restrictions for diesel cars are much tougher than the restrictions for off-road equipment. Well, diesel pollutants really are bad for human health and the polluters have been allowed to pollute for far too long.
Cells from human blood vessels were exposed to diesel particulates and
“Diesel particles are coated in chemicals containing free radicals, and the fatty acids in LDL cholesterol generate free radicals during metabolism in the cells,” said first author Ke Wei Gong, a UCLA cardiology researcher. “We wanted to measure what happens when these two sources of oxidation come into contact.”
The scientists combined the pollutants and oxidized fats and cultured them with cells from the inner lining of human blood vessels. A few hours later, the team extracted DNA from the cells for genetic analysis.
“We saw that the diesel particles and oxidized fats had worked in tandem to activate the genes that promote cellular inflammation — a major risk factor for atherosclerosis,” said Dr. Jesus Araujo, UCLA assistant professor of medicine and director of environmental cardiology at the Geffen School of Medicine.
“The interaction left a genetic footprint that reveals how interaction between the particles and cholesterol accelerates the narrowing and blockage of the blood vessels,” Araujo noted.
Now you might be saying that cell culture studies often do not reflect what happens in whole organisms. True enough. But these scientists saw similar gene expression changes when they repeated the experiment with live mice.
To duplicate these findings in living cells, the UCLA team exposed mice with high cholesterol to the diesel particles and saw activation of some of the same gene groups in the animals’ tissue.
Do not live near highways. Do not live in areas with high levels of air pollution. If you must then consider installing a particulate air filter.
By Randall Parker 2007 July 28 09:30 PM Health Pollution Harm
Entry Permalink | Comments ( 1 )

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You must have good air filters… most air filters are borderline scams or total crap… I know, I’ve owned almost everything on the market… and a couple of basic points (you’ll see what I mean when you get yourself some grade “A” filters and change the filter elements on a strict schedule)… sure, everybody wants to live in the metropolitian areas where the action is… if they only had an inkling what they are breathing…

Urban air has sub-micron polutants in abundance, there are carbonized particles, metals, grits, plastics (now they know that tires emit sub-micon pertochemical and metal dusts)… in the industry parlance, once a particle cloud is below the millionths of an inch scale, it is categorized as a “smoke”… the difference between “smokes” and “dusts” is that smokes, thanks to their ratio of electrostatic charge to surface area, may stay suspeneded in the air indefinitely, and they can creep around windwoseals, door frames, etc. like gasses…

Micro particles and nano particles arte also so small that they literally slip therouhg the lung to bloodstream barrier and enter the bloodstream as a foreign (antigenic) agent… hence we see the rise in many diseases in the newly industrialized economies where there is much activity and little regulatory control of emissions… these are sub-micron particle induced illnesses…

So, you have to have filters, especially for the bedrooms where air may be recirculated for hours and the body is trying to reconstruct itself…

For the air in my apartment to barely pass muster I need to combine the Blue Air 501, a large sub micron particle filter, AND an Austin Healthmate PLUS chemical filter… if I turn these off, the air will soon seem close, stifling, and my lungs start to tighten and my mind is distinctly fuzzy and dull…

When I think of all the stinky, oppressive office spaces I been in, it is hard to see why quality air isn’t high on the company priority list…

Actually the newest green building designs now include hyperfiltered air in the micron range…

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So tacitus, how about some air filter reviews? And sources.

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One question I have is “New” Diesel particulates or “Old”. They changed diesel gasoline because the old diesel particulates contained sulfer.

But don’t just believe me:

Green Car Congress: Ultra Low-Sulfur Diesel Regulations Take Effect in US

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The larger Blue Air machines do remove the finest sub-micron w/o buying a lab or industrial unit… when I shut the Blue Air off for even a few hours my sleep is shallow, room feels close and muggy… its a good ionizer too… in NYC you change the filters all the damn time… 4x a year at least, Ideally 6x a year… gets very expensive… truth is that clean air is hard to do.. I think in many 3rd world economies they still put tetraethyl-lead into the gasoline… kids have three eyes and the like…

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So on impulse, I bought the smallest unit for my bedroom - think it is the Blue Air 301, without smokestop VOC filter. Within a half hour or so, the air felt noticeably fresher - like at the sea side - presumably the impact of negative ions. I already had a tiny little bedside ioniser, but this had a 50x stronger impact.

Slept v well, woke up without the usual slight nasal congestion feeling well rested. My sinuses feel super-clear and lungs very open. My voice deeper and more resonant like just after working with a qi gong/guided meditation practitioner.

Jumped on the web to buy a larger one with VOC filter for the living room - thing is a monster, looks like a milspec PC or something - but super quiet. I’d highly recommend getting something like this, particularly if you suffer from allergies or another immune system condition involving elevated inflammatory cytokines.

Hmmm… when are we going to have a nutrition and better living subforum opening here? :wink:

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My guess is the soot itself is bad enough and one of these filters will take out both, new and old.

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Yeah… air is such a basic quality of life factor… this is unbeleivable to me, so many properties are sold or rented as “luxury” or “super-luxury” plane residences, yet… they have terrible air quality, especially the perma-sealed window places as much new development in the city centers… not only is it nasty, contaminated, and ion-less, it is nasty, contaminated, ion-less and continuously recycled through moldy ductwork... once I got religion w.r.t. GOOD air filtration, I am happy to spend the money on frequent filter replacements… you should see what my filters look like at change over… THAT was in my air ??? YIKES! :open_mouth: