Background: The pathophysiological mechanisms of air pollution-induced atherosclerosis are incompletely understood. Sphingolipids serve as biological intermediates during atherosclerosis development by facilitating production of proatherogenic apoB (apolipoprotein B)-containing lipoproteins. We explored whether sphingolipids mediate the proatherogenic effects of air pollution.
Methods: This was a prospective panel study of 110 participants (mean age 56.5 years) followed from 2013 to 2015 in Beijing, China. Targeted lipidomic analyses were used to quantify 24 sphingolipids in 579 plasma samples. The mass concentrations of ambient particulate matter ≤2.5 μm in diameter (PM2.5) were continuously monitored by a fixed station. We evaluated the associations between sphingolipid levels and average PM2.5 concentrations 1-30 days before clinic visits using linear mixed-effects models and explored whether sphingolipids mediate PM2.5-associated changes in the levels of proatherogenic apoB-containing lipoproteins (LDL-C [low-density lipoprotein cholesterol] and non-HDL-C [nonhigh-density lipoprotein cholesterol]) using mediation analyses.
Results: We observed significant increases in the levels of non-HDL-C and fourteen sphingolipids associated with PM2.5 exposure, from short- (14 days) to medium-term (30 days) exposure time windows. The associations exhibited near-monotonic increases and peaked in 30-day time window. Increased levels of the sphingolipids, namely, sphinganine, ceramide C24:0, sphingomyelins C16:0/C18:0/C18:1/C20:0/C22:0/C24:0, and hexosylceramides C16:0/C18:0/C20:0/C22:0/C24:0/C24:1 significantly mediated 32%, 58%, 35% to 93%, and 23% to 86%, respectively, of the positive association between 14-day PM2.5 average and the non-HDL-C level, but not the LDL-C level. Similar mediation effects (19%-91%) of the sphingolipids were also observed in 30-day time window.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that sphingolipids may mediate the proatherogenic effects of short- and medium-term PM2.5 exposure.
Keywords: air pollution; apolipoproteins B; atherosclerosis; cardiovascular disease; lipidomics; sphingolipids.