Superfund Research Program

Ultrafine Pollutant Exposure Alters Pulmonary Immunologic Homeostasis (ARRA Funded)

Project Leader: Stephania A. Cormier
Grant Number: P42ES013648
Funding Period: 2009-2011

Project-Specific Links

Final Progress Reports

Year:   2010 

The prevalence of inflammatory respiratory diseases, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), in industrialized urban areas has increased dramatically in recent years. Dr. Stephania Cormier is examining how combustion/thermal degradation of Superfund wastes affects the development and progression of inflammatory airways disease and, specifically, whether ultrafine particle pollutants generated by those treatments can cause immunological changes that predispose individuals to chronic lung disease. Researchers are studying the immunological and pathophysiological impact of ultrafine particle-persistent free radical systems on normal/diseased rat and mice lungs and characterizing the impact of exposure on pulmonary dendritic cell responses. Since dendritic cells orchestrate many pulmonary immune responses, they likely play a major role in chronic lung disease associated with exposure to particulate matter.

The research group’s data demonstrated that environmentally persistent free radicals-ultrafine particles (EPFR-UFPs) induce an asthma-like phenotype and that exposure to them may be responsible for the development of lung dysfunction in humans and provide some explanation for a worldwide increase in asthma prevalence. These studies provide insight into how thermal remediation of Superfund wastes affects the development and progression of inflammatory airways disease with the expectation of valid extrapolation to human inflammatory airways disease (i.e. asthma). This work will significantly advance scientific understanding of the dendritic cell responses to xenobiotics and dendritic cell-induced immunotoxicity. The final outcome of these studies will have important implications for public health and environmental policy, since currently there are no air quality standards for environmentally persistent free radicals-ultrafine particles.