Disturbed glucose homeostasis and its increased allostatic load in response to individual, joint and fluctuating air pollutants exposure: Evidence from a longitudinal study in prediabetes

Abstract

We investigated the effect of individual, joint and fluctuating exposure to air pollution (PM2.5, BC, NO3−, NH4+, OM, SO42−, PM10, NO2, SO2, O3) on glucose metabolisms among prediabetes, and simultaneously explored the modifying effect of lifestyle. We conducted a longitudinal study among prediabetes during 2018–2022. Exposure windows within 60-days moving averages and their variabilities were calculated. FBG, insulin, HOMA-IR, HOMA-B, triglyceride glucose index (TyG), glucose insulin ratio (GI) and allostatic load of glucose homeostasis system (AL-GHS) was included. Linear mixed-effects model and BKMR were adopted to investigate the individual and overall effects, respectively. We also explored the preventive role of lifestyle. Individual air pollutant was associated with increased FBG, insulin, HOMA-IR, HOMA-B, TyG, and decreased GI. People with FBG ≥6.1 mmol/L were more susceptible. Air pollutants mixture were only associated with increased HOMA-B, and constituents have the highest group-PIP. Air pollutants variation also exert harmful effect. We observed similar diabetic effect on AL-GHS. Finally, the diabetic effect of air pollutants disappeared if participants adopt a favorable lifestyle. Our findings highlighted the importance of comprehensively assessing multiple air pollutants and their variations, focusing on metabolic health status in the early prevention of T2D, and adopting healthy lifestyle to mitigate such harmful effect.