Outdoor residential air pollution exposure and the development of brain volumes across childhood: A longitudinal study

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• dc.contributor.author Kusters, Michelle S.W.
• dc.contributor.author Binter, Anne-Claire
• dc.contributor.author Muetzel, Ryan L.
• dc.contributor.author López Vicente, Mònica, 1988-
• dc.contributor.author Petricola, Sami
• dc.contributor.author Tiemeier, Henning
• dc.contributor.author Guxens Junyent, Mònica
• dc.date.accessioned 2025-06-18T06:36:52Z
• dc.date.available 2025-06-18T06:36:52Z
• dc.date.issued 2025
• dc.description.abstract Emerging evidence suggests that air pollution exposure is associated with child's brain morphology, but the relationship between air pollution and longitudinal changes in the development of brain volumes has yet to be investigated. We studied the association of exposure to air pollution in pregnancy and childhood with the change of brain volumes from childhood into adolescence, using repeated assessments of brain volumes. We used data from 4243 children of a large Dutch population-based birth cohort. Exposure to 14 air pollutants during pregnancy and childhood was estimated using land-use regression models. We obtained structural brain MRI data at 3 timepoints, resulting in 6059 useable scans of white matter, cortical grey matter, cerebellum, and 7 subcortical volumes. For 1191 participants we had data on both last two timepoints. We conducted single-pollutant analyses for each air pollutant and brain volume, using linear mixed models adjusted for life-style and socioeconomic status variables. Then we performed multi-pollutant analyses with the least absolute shrinkage and selection operator for mixed models. Air pollution exposure was not associated with changes in white matter, cortical grey matter, and cerebellar volumes. Higher exposure to copper and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameter <2.5 μm (PM2.5) during pregnancy was associated with a smaller hippocampal volume at the first neuroimaging assessment, followed by faster growth of hippocampal volume (e.g. 25.1 mm3 increase of hippocampal volume [95 % CI 8.6; 41.7] per 5 ng/m3 increase in copper exposure per year of age). Results were comparable when restricting the analyses to children with complete data for the last two timepoints. Exposure to copper and PM2.5 during pregnancy was related with a smaller hippocampal volume in mid childhood, followed by catch-up growth. Plasticity of the hippocampus might mitigate adverse effects of air pollution early in life.
• dc.description.sponsorship This publication was co-financed by the Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and the European Social Fund (FSE) " EL FSE invierte en tu futuro" with reference number PRE2020-092005, according to the Resolution of the Presidency of the AEI, by which grants are awarded for pre-doctoral contracts for the training of doctors, call 2020 (awarded to M.S.W.K). This study was also supported by the Sophia Foundation project S18-20 (awarded to R.L.M.) and the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) Vici project 016.VICI.170.200 (awarded to H.T.). M.G. was funded by a Miguel Servet II fellowship (CPII18/00018) from the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III. M.L.V. was funded by Project IJC2020-045355-I, funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by the European Union NextGenerationEU/PRTR. The general design of Generation R Study is made possible by financial support from the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Erasmus University Rotterdam, ZonMw, The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), and the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport. The geocodification of the addresses of the study participants and the air pollution estimations were done within the framework of a project funded by the Health Effects Institute (HEI) (Assistance Award No. R-82811201). Supercomputing resources for neuroimaging analyses was provided by the Dutch Scientific Organization (NWO, surfsara.nl, 2021.042). We received funding from the EU Commission (H2020 n° 824989). We acknowledge support from grant CEX2023-0001290-S funded by MCIN/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033, support from the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA Program, and from the Ministry of Research and Universities of the Government of Catalonia (2021 SGR 01564). The funders had no role in the design and conduct of the study; collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript; and decision to submit the manuscript for publication.
• dc.format.mimetype application/pdf
• dc.identifier.citation Kusters MSW, Binter AC, Muetzel RL, López-Vicente M, Petricola S, Tiemeier H, et al. Outdoor residential air pollution exposure and the development of brain volumes across childhood: A longitudinal study. Environ Pollut. 2025 May 15;373:126078. DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126078
• dc.identifier.doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2025.126078
• dc.identifier.issn 0269-7491
• dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/10230/70712
• dc.language.iso eng
• dc.publisher Elsevier
• dc.relation.ispartof Environ Pollut. 2025 May 15;373:126078
• dc.relation.projectID info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/H2020/824989
• dc.rights © 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
• dc.rights.accessRights info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
• dc.rights.uri http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• dc.subject.keyword Air pollutants
• dc.subject.keyword Brain development
• dc.subject.keyword Cohort studies
• dc.subject.keyword Environmental pollution
• dc.subject.keyword Hippocampus
• dc.subject.keyword Neuroimaging
• dc.title Outdoor residential air pollution exposure and the development of brain volumes across childhood: A longitudinal study
• dc.type info:eu-repo/semantics/article
• dc.type.version info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion