Breathing in diesel exhaust leads to changes in gene expression

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-01/uobc-bid010715.php

Public Release: 7-Jan-2015
University of British Columbia

Just two hours of exposure to diesel exhaust fumes can lead to fundamental health-related changes in biology by switching some genes on, while switching others off, according to researchers at the University of British Columbia and Vancouver Coastal Health.

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The researchers examined how such exposure affected the chemical "coating" that attaches to many parts of a person's DNA. That carbon-hydrogen coating, called methylation, can silence or dampen a gene, preventing it from producing a protein - sometimes to a person's benefit, sometimes not. Methylation is one of several mechanisms for controlling gene expression, which is the focus of a rapidly growing field of study called epigenetics.

The study, published this month in Particle and Fibre Toxicology, found that diesel exhaust caused changes in methylation at about 2,800 different points on people's DNA, affecting about 400 genes. In some places it led to more methylation; in more cases, it decreased methylation.

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