Abstract
Dietary supplement and personal care products aiming to provide protection from air pollution have been of great interest for decades. Epidemiology demonstrated that PM10 and PM2.5 particulate matter (PM) are an actual threat to public health worldwide, but the detailed processes of how these particles attack the cells are not fully understood. Here, we report that the measurement of intracellular calcium concentration ([Ca2+]i) using human respiratory or skin cells can illustrate pollutant challenges by triggering Ca2+ influx in these cells. This signal was generated by proteinase-activated receptor-2 (PAR-2), confirmed by competition analyses, and Phellodendron amurense bark extract (PAE), a traditional medicine, was able to control the response and expression of PAR-2. Increase in proinflammatory cytokines and decrease in cell adhesion components could suggest a severe damage status by air pollutants and protection by PAE. Finally, we identified 4-O-feruloylquinic acid (FQA), an active compound of PAE, showing the same effects on Ca2+ influx and PAR-2 regulation. The results presented here should help understand the underlying mechanism of PM insults and the beneficial effect of standardized PAE as dietary supplement or cosmetical ingredient.
Highlights
Air pollution is a major environmental threat to public health worldwide [1,2]
Several researchers have concluded that outdoor or ambient air pollution is carcinogenic to humans, and, more recently, large-scale retrospective analyses of over 600 cities worldwide revealed an independent association between short-term exposure to air pollutants and daily mortality [5,6,7]
To characterize cellular damages elicited by air pollutants, especially PM2.5, we set up an intracellular Ca2+ -measuring system as described in the Materials and Methods Section
Summary
Air pollution is a major environmental threat to public health worldwide [1,2]. The. World Health Organization (WHO, Geneva, Switzerland) Air Quality Guidelines confirmed that over 4 million premature deaths were probably caused by particulate matter (PM)2.5 [3]. Several researchers have concluded that outdoor or ambient air pollution is carcinogenic to humans, and, more recently, large-scale retrospective analyses of over 600 cities worldwide revealed an independent association between short-term exposure to air pollutants and daily mortality [5,6,7]. Skin is an important organ that is in constant contact with air pollution. Skin is the biggest and outmost organ in our body, and it plays a role as a barrier to environmental insults, both physical and chemical [8]. Exposure to air pollutants causes premature skin aging, pigmentation spots, and acne. Cumulative irritations by exposure to PM have been implicated in skin
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