Impact of long-term exposure to air pollution on myocardium ageing

Abstract

The long-term exposure to air pollution has an important impact in life expectancy of people living in large urban cities. Additionally, recent evidences indicate that air pollution seems to accelerate some cellular changes of natural aging process, which may cause or exacerbate many diseases not only limited to respiratory system diseases, but also those that target cardiovascular system and other organs and tissues. Many studies have demonstrated increased number of hospital admissions and mortality by cardiovascular causes associated to higher levels of air pollution. However, it has not been reported the influence of air pollution upon aging biomarkers in the myocardium. In this sense, the present study aim to determine the possible association between the long-term exposure to air pollution, assessed by quantification of pulmonary anthracosis, and the ageing myocardium of São Paulo city dwellers. The clinicopathologic approach by using autopsy of subjects that had lived in that large urban area will contribute to obtain information about the relationship between the ambient and cardiovascular disease-associated mechanisms. (AU)