Nanoparticles raise vascular risk by escaping the lungs

Inhaled nanoparticles can cross the lungs, entering the bloodstream, and accumulate in blood vessels and other bodily sites vulnerable to cardiovascular disease.

Air pollution. Image credit: Zakysant/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

In the study it was shown that healthy volunteers exposed to gold nanoparticles retained them in the body for as long as three months. Experiments on mice also reveal that nanoparticles accumulate in the liver and blood vessels.

Results from human studies have been inconsistent thus far, the authors write. But evidence showing that nanoparticles enter the blood circulation by escaping the lungs “provides a direct mechanism that can explain the link between environmental nanoparticles and cardiovascular disease”. It also has implications for managing potential risks of engineered nanoparticles, they add.

The link between environmental nanoparticles and cardiovascular disease could be explained by gold particles detected in surgical specimens of diseased carotid artery from patients at risk of stroke and at sites of vascular inflammation, according to the study.

While it was conducted with gold nanoparticles, the researchers from University of Edinburgh, UK, believe that the results can be extended to nanoparticles in vehicle exhaust.

Nanoparticles in ambient air come from both natural and artificial sources, but vehicles are the main culprit.

In Europe, tighter emission norms have reduced the number of nanoparticles emitted by diesel engines. However, the situation is different in developing Asia Pacific countries where older vehicles are still widely used, and the burning of solid fuels for cooking already adds to particulate matter in ambient air. (SciDev.Net)

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