可吸入颗粒物的健康效应机制

流行病学的研究表明,大气颗粒物的浓度水平与呼吸系统和心肺疾病的发病率、住院率和死亡率呈显著的正相关关系,但其生物和毒理学机制尚不清楚.根据可吸入颗粒物的特征和成分,国外的学者提出了各种不同的假说,包括以物理为基础的假说、有害有机组分假说、生物质假说、酸性气溶胶假说和氧化性损伤假说等.该文主要对可吸入颗粒物如何影响人体健康、对健康影响的主要毒理学机制(尤其是氧化性损伤假说)及毒理学评价方法的研究进展进行了综述.并针对中国可吸入颗粒物污染现状及其对人体健康的影响,提出研究方向,认为我国应加强大气颗粒物毒理学及评价方法的研究,从而揭示其对人体健康的影响机制.

Adverse Effect Mechanisms of Inhalable Particulate Matters

Epidemiological studies have shown a positive association between ambient particulate matter (PM) levels and incidence rate, hospital admission and mortality. However, the underlying biological and toxicological mechanisms still are unknown. Several hypotheses were put forward to explain the toxicological mechanisms of PM of different components, including physical characteristics hypothesis, harmful organic hypothesis, biological characteristics hypothesis, acid aerosol hypothesis and oxidative stress hypothesis, and so on. The paper mainly discusses how the particulate matters may cause adverse health effects, the main hypotheses (especially oxidative stress hypothesis) and assessing methods for PM toxicological mechanisms. In this paper, several scientific problems were presented according to the current status of air pollution and PM-caused health effects in China. Although the toxicological mechanisms of PM are very difficult to classify because of its complex components, the studies on toxicological mechanisms and assessment methods should be enhanced.