Air pollution can affect the health of other parts of the body. Scientists believe they have figured out how fine particulate matter can cause damage to the brain.
Ultra-fine particles in the air can enter the lungs, enter the bloodstream, and eventually enter the brain, according to mouse models.
The immune system can't clear toxins from neurological tissue. The brain was found to have airborne particles in it for longer than any other organ.
It's not clear if the same pathways exist in humans, but the findings suggest that if particles are small enough, they can slip past the blood brain barrier.
One of the first to show air pollutants sneaking by the brain's border patrol is a study that shows a link to cognitive damage.
Scientists used to think fine particulate matter couldn't get past the blood brain barrier. The particles were thought to have made their way to the brain through the nose or the gut.
The work sheds new light on the link between inhaling particles and how they move around the body.
Air pollution affects the cardiovascular system more than the central nervous system.
Exposure to air pollution in major cities has been linked to inflammation and cognitive decline in young people. Alzheimer's disease is linked to a leaking blood brain barrier and some of the damage looks like it.
The researchers found evidence in about a third of the group of people that they were exposed to air pollution.
Toxic air may be invading the fluid that bathes our brains, according to the findings.
The researchers turned to mice.
The toxins invaded the mouse brain via circulating blood when they were injected directly into the lungs.
The authors note that the structure of the blood brain barrier was damaged. Toxic particles were found near the blood brain barrier in several mouse brain tissue slices.
The cells that make up the blood brain barrier were shown to be transliterated in a petri dish.
The toxins in the brain tissue of mice that weren't exposed to air pollutants weren't found.
After a day, the air pollutants from the organs of the mouse decreased, but the brain was slower to excrete them.
The authors say that the findings offer a line of evidence in proving the risks from particulate pollution to the central nervous system.
"However, more direct proof of the exposure and transport pathways of ambient fine particles from inhaling via the bloodstream and damage of the brain is needed, warranting further detailed investigation, including epidemiological studies, in the future."
The study was published in the national academy of sciences
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