Pregnancy is a period in which the health of both the mother and the developing fetus is of key importance. Expectant mothers are often bombarded with advice on diet, exercise and prenatal care to ensure a healthy pregnancy and the birth of a healthy baby. However, there is one key factor that is sometimes overlooked: air quality . Recent research sheds light on the harmful effects of air pollution on fetal development, highlighting the importance of reducing exposure to air pollutants during pregnancy.
According to research presented by Olga Gorlanova, doctor and researcher at the University Children's Hospital of the University of Basel at the European Pulmonology Society's international conference in Milan, pregnant women's exposure to higher nitrogen dioxide (NO2), a pollutant mainly from vehicle emissions, is associated with increased levels of protein Beclin-1, which plays a role in the initiation of autophagy, i.e. cell renewal. It was also linked to reduced levels of the protein SIRT1, which plays a protective role in resistance to stress, inflammation and aging, and the protein IL-8, which is active in certain inflammatory cells. For the research, the scientific team examined 11 proteins found in the umbilical cord blood of 449 healthy newborn babies.
In previous research, Ms. Gorlanova and her colleagues have identified that exposure to air pollution during pregnancy can affect the lung function and immune system of newborns.
Mariel Pignenburg, associate professor of Pediatric Pulmonology at Erasmus University Rotterdam in the Netherlands and head of the European Pulmonology Society for Pediatrics, who was not involved in the research, comments that"We already have enough evidence from this and other studies to send a message loud and clear to governments and policy makers that air pollution is harming people's health and the effects can be seen before birth. We should all double down renew our efforts to reduce air pollution as quickly and further as possible. This will not only improve the health of populations and reduce the costs associated with treating diseases caused by air pollution, but will also help environment at a time when the climate crisis is becoming more apparent with each passing day."
0 Comments