December 2023

The study about the association of air pollution with the biomarker test of biological aging was published in the Jounal Environmental Health Perspectives.

This study investigated whether air pollution exposure is associated with accelerated urinary peptidomic aging, independent of calendar age, and whether this association is modified by other risk factors.

Among 660 participants (50.2% women; mean age: 50.7 y), higher exposure to PM10, PM2:5, BC, and NO2 was associated with a higher UPP-age-R. Studying effect modifiers showed that higher plasma levels of desphospho-uncarboxylated matrix Gla protein (dpucMGP), signifying poorer vitamin K status, steepened the slopes of UPP-age-R on the air pollutants. In further analyses among participants with dpucMGP ≥4:26 lg=L (median), an interquartile range (IQR) higher level in PM10, PM2:5, BC, and NO2 was associated with a higher UPP-ageR of 2.03 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.60, 3.46], 2.22 (95% CI: 0.71, 3.74), 2.00 (95% CI: 0.56, 3.43), and 2.09 (95% CI: 0.77, 3.41) y, respectively. UPP-age-R was an indirect mediator of the associations of mortality with the air pollutants [multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios from 1.094 (95% CI: 1.000, 1.196) to 1.110 (95% CI: 1.007, 1.224)] in participants with a high dpucMGP, whereas no direct associations were observed.

Ambient air pollution was associated with accelerated urinary peptidomics aging, and high vitamin K status showed a potential protective effect in this population. Current guidelines are insufficient to decrease the adverse health effects of airborne pollutants, including healthy aging trajectories.