The associations of particulate matter short-term exposure and serum lipids are modified by vitamin D status: A panel study of young healthy adults

Particulate matter (PM) exposure is associated to the adverse change in blood lipids. Vitamin D is beneficial to lipid metabolism, but whether vitamin D levels modifies the impact of air pollutants on lipids is unclear. The purpose of the study was to investigate if vitamin D modifies the associations of PM and serum lipids in young healthy people. From December 2017 to January 2018, a panel study with five once weekly follow-ups was conducted on 88 healthy adults aged 21.09 (1.08) (mean (SD)) years on average in Guangzhou, China. We measured serum lipids, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D) concentrations (440 blood samples in total), mass concentrations of particulate matter with diameters ≤2.5 μm (PM(2.5)), ≤1.0 μm (PM(1.0)), and ≤0.5 μm (PM(0.5)), and number concentrations of particulate matter with diameters ≤0.2 μm (PN(0.2)) and ≤0.1 μm (PN(0.1)) at each follow-up. Linear mixed-effect models were applied to assess the interaction of vitamin D and size-fractionated PM short-term exposure on four lipid metrics. We found the interactions between 25(OH)D and size-fractionated PM exposure on blood lipids in different lags (lag 3 days and 4 days). An interquartile range increase in PM(2.5), PM(1.0), PM(0.5) were significantly associated with increments of 12.30%, 12.99%, and 13.66% in triglycerides (TGs) at lag 4 days at vitamin D levels <15 ng/mL group, respectively. Similar results were found for PN(0.2), PN(0.1) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C). All the associations between size-fractionated PM and blood lipids were found null statistically significant in vitamin D levels ≥15 ng/mL group.

• Li, J. M.
• Yang, H. Y.
• Wu, S. H.
• Dharmage, S. C.
• Jalaludin, B.
• Knibbs, L. D.
• Bloom, M. S.
• Guo, Y.
• Morawska, L.
• Heinrich, J.
• Steve Hung Lam, Y.
• Lin, L. Z.
• Zeng, X. W.
• Yang, B. Y.
• Chen, G. B.
• Liu, R. Q.
• Dong, G. H.
• Hu, L. W.