Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated that particulate matter (PM) in air pollution can be involved in the genesis or aggravation of different cardiovascular, respiratory, perinatal, and cancer diseases. This study assessed the in vitro effects of PM₁₀ on the secretion of cytokines by a human monocytic cell line (THP-1). We compared the chemotactic, pro-inflammatory, and anti-inflammatory cytokines induced by PM₁₀ collected for two years during three different seasons in five different Mexico City locations. MIP-1α, IP-10, MCP-1, TNF-α, and VEGF were the main secretion products after stimulation with 80 μg/mL of PM₁₀ for 24 h. The THP-1 cells showed a differential response to PM₁₀ obtained in the different sites of Mexico City. The PM₁₀ from the north and the central city areas induced a higher pro-inflammatory cytokine response than those from the south. Seasonal pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion always exceeded anti-inflammatory secretion. The rainy-season-derived particles caused the lowest pro-inflammatory effects. We concluded that toxicological assessment of airborne particles provides evidence supporting their potential role in the chronic exacerbation of local or systemic inflammatory responses that may worsen the evolution of some chronic diseases.

Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated that particulate matter (PM) in air pollution can be involved in the genesis or aggravation of different cardiovascular, respiratory, perinatal, and cancer diseases. This study assessed the in vitro effects of PM <10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10) on the secretion of cytokines by a human monocytic cell line (THP-1). We compared the chemotactic, pro-inflammatory, and anti-inflammatory cytokines induced by PM10 collected for two years during three different seasons in five different Mexico City locations. MIP-1α, IP-10, MCP-1, TNF-α, and VEGF were the main secretion products after stimulation with 80 μg/mL of PM10 for 24 hours. The THP-1 cells showed a differential response to PM10 obtained in the different sites of Mexico City. The PM10 from the north and the central city areas induced a higher pro-inflammatory cytokine response than those from the south. Seasonal pro-inflammatory cytokine secretion always exceeded the anti-inflammatory one. The rainy season-derived particles caused the lowest pro-inflammatory effects. We concluded that toxicological assessment of airborne particles provides evidence supporting their potential role in chronic exacerbation of local or systemic inflammatory responses that may worsen the evolution of some chronic diseases.

Objective: To evaluate the ability of cervicovaginal cytokines to describe and predict the inflammatory processes associated to spontaneous labor onset both, term and preterm. Design: Pseudo-longitudinal study. Setting: Two Ministry of Health-affiliated hospitals in Mexico City from 2018 to 2020. Population or Sample: Women with singleton pregnancies at different moments during spontaneous onset of first stage of labor between 12 and 41 weeks of gestation. Methods: Women were grouped in five stages going from the absence of uterine activity and cervical changes (Stage 0) to the regular uterine contractions with cervix dilation >3 cm (Stage 4 or established labor). Main Outcome Measures: Cervicovaginal cytokine concentrations between term and preterm labor, cytokine trajectories throughout spontaneous labor onset and predictive accuracy of IL-6 for spontaneous labor. Results: Of 144 women with spontaneous labor 96 delivered at term and 48 preterm, both groups displayed similar cytokine concentrations. We found positive correlations between pro-inflammatory cytokines and clinical manifestations of labor (study stages) using individual cytokines and score-based data by principal-component analysis (IFN-ϒ, TNF-α, IL-1β, IL-6) as dependent variables. The risk of delivery increased as IL-6 concentrations increased (HR 202.09, 95% CI 24.57-1662.49, P<0.001). IL-6 was a significant predictor for spontaneous labor within 12 days (AUC=0.785, 95% CI 0.693-0.877) regardless of gestational age. Conclusions: Cervicovaginal cytokines, particularly IL-6, reflect and predict the intrauterine inflammatory sequence associated to initial labor progression. This study provides a new insight into cervicovaginal inflammatory biomarkers usability for labor diagnosis and birth prediction. Keywords: Labor, cytokines, preterm birth, IL-6.

Aging is believed to occur across multiple domains, one of which is body composition; however, attempts to integrate it into biological age (BA) have been limited. Here, we consider the sex-dependent role of anthropometry for prediction of 10-year all-cause mortality using data from 18,794 NHANES participants to generate and validate a new BA metric. Our data-driven approach pointed to sex-specific contributors for BA estimation: WHtR, arm and thigh circumferences for men; weight, WHtR, thigh circumference, subscapular and triceps skinfolds for women. We used these measurements to generate AnthropoAge, which predicted all-cause mortality (AUROC 0.876, 95%CI 0.864-0.887) and cause-specific mortality independently of race, sex, and comorbidities; AnthropoAge was a better predictor than PhenoAge for cerebrovascular, Alzheimer and COPD mortality. A metric of age acceleration was also derived and used to assess sexual dimorphisms linked to accelerated aging, where women had an increase in overall body mass plus an important subcutaneous to visceral fat redistribution, and men displayed a marked decrease in fat and muscle mass. Finally, we showed that consideration of multiple BA metrics may identify unique aging trajectories with increased mortality (HR for multidomain acceleration 2.43, 95%CI 2.25-2.62) and comorbidity profiles. A simplified version of AnthropoAge (S-AnthropoAge) was generated using only BMI and WHtR, all results were preserved using this metric. In conclusion, AnthropoAge is a useful proxy of BA that captures cause-specific mortality and sex dimorphisms in body composition, and it could be used for future multidomain assessments of aging to better characterize the heterogeneity of this phenomenon. GRAPHICAL