Health effect of different gaseous formaldehyde fluctuation forms on mice: a preliminary study

摘要

Formaldehyde (FA), among the most hazardous air pollutants in indoor environment, will result in diseases such as asthma, lung cancer and leukemia at certain dose. However, so far very few experiments covering its health effects of different fluctuation forms have been reported, especially those existing in the actual residence environment. The aim of this study is to compare the health damage difference between FA at fluctuant exposure (based on the real monitoring result) and at constant exposure.Mice were divided into 3 groups for fluctuant exposure (12 hours 1 mg/m~3 and 12 hours 0 mg/m~3), constant exposure (24 hours 0.5 mg/m~3) and zero exposure (no formaldehyde) per day for 7, 14 and 28 days, respectively. After exposure, the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), lung tissue and its homogenate as well as marrow samples were prepared to examine the relevant biomarkers. It was shown that exposure to FA could induce elevated level of both oxidative stress and inflammation in the lung tissue of mice. Additionally, the inflammatory and pro-inflammatory cytokines like IL-4, IL-5, IL-13, IL-6, IL-17 and IL-1β were found to be up-regulated by FA exposure. What's more, total number of inflammatory cells and the number of some specific inflammatory cells as well both exhibited an increase in the BALF when exposed to fluctuating FA. Interestingly, our study has demonstrated that the fluctuating FA exposure rather than the constant FA exposureplayed a more intensified role in promoting the above biological alterations and even the apoptosis. This study has confirmed from several aspects that fluctuating FA exposure could be more likely to exert an adverse influence on the health of mice, leading to some guidance information for the construction of healthy indoor environment.